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LETTER 



ON 



COL<OJfIZATI OX, 



ADDRESSED TO THE 



REV. THORNTON J. MILLS. 

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE KENTUCKY COLONI2ATIOK 
SOCIETY. 



BY JAMES G. BIRNEV, ESQ,. 

LATE VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE KENTUCKY COLONIZATION SOCTBTY. 



NEW YORK: 

OFFICE OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER. 
130 NASSAU STREET 

1834. 









In B:iOn ngn 

Goruell Uuiv. 



<<3 



^ 



LETTER 

OF 

JAMES G. BIRNEY, Esq 



The author of the following letter is a gentleman of education and 
fortune, a native of Kentucky, and allied bj' birth and marriage to many 
of the principal families of that statj. He has resided fifteen years in 
Alabama, where he maintained the highest standing, both as a citizen 
and a professional man. For several years he has been known through 
out the South West as a devoted, exemplary, and influential Christian. 
On his return to Kentucky, he was elected first Vice President of the State 
Colonization Society. In 18?2, he was appointed by the American Colo 
nization Society their permanent agent, with a liberal salary, for Tennes- 
see, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas, and he faithfully la- 
boured in the cause. His writings were copied with approbation in the 
official magazine of the Society. No man has a better knowledge of 
colonization, and its practical effects at the south. Few could have made 
greater sacrifices than he has done, by espousing, advocating, and prac- 
tising sentiments so obnoxious and unpopular as those of an "Abolition- 
ist." Xo document before the public on any subject exhibits greater abil- 
ity. Such a man has a right to be heard, and his arguments should be 
weighed with respect by every citizen of this nation. 



To the Rev. Thornton J. Mills, Corresponding Secretary of 
the Kentucky Colonization Society. 

Sir : — At the annual meeting of the " Kentucky Colonization 
Society" in January last, it pleased the members to elect me one 
of its Vice Presidents. 1 am by no means insensible to the favor- 
able opinion, which placed me in company with such able and 
honorable aijsociates : but I should be unworthy of it, and want- 
ing in respect to the officeis and members, did I not frankly avow, 
that my opinions of colonization, in some of its most essential 
featiu'es, have undergone a change, so great, as to make it im- 
perative on me no longer to give to the enterprise that support 
md favor which are justly expected from all connected with it 

In leaving my station, it is due to the gentlemen with whom I 



4 jAs. G. birney's letter. 

have been associated, as well as to myself, that I should at least 
^ve some of the reasons which have persuaded me to this coorse. 
That all the grounds necessary for an impartial and intelligent 
judgment may be exhibited, I think it not unimi)ortant to state, 
though very briefly, the relation in which I have, for many years, 
stood to the cause of colonization. Although a native of Ken- 
tucky, I resided for fifteen years previously to last autumn, in the 
state of x\labama. It was in the year 1826, not very 'ong after 
ihe publication of the " African Repository" was begun, at a 
time when little had been said, at least in the West and South- 
west, on the subject of colonization, that it first arrested my at- 
tention. I considered it, and I doubt not by very many of those 
who gave it their early support it was intended, as a scheme of 
benevolence to the whole colored population, and as a germ of 
effort capable of expansion adequate to our largest necessities in 
the extermination of slavery. It was on the 4th of July of this 
year, that, uniting my own to the contributions of other gentle- 
men and ladies privately solicited b}^ myself, I was enabled to 
send on to the Treasurer of the" American Colonization Society" 
the first collection of money, so far as my information extends, 
that was made for its purposes in Huntsville, the place of my 
residence. If I remember accurately, collections were afterwards 
taken up, and the subject presented to the congregation from the 
pulpit for several successive 4ths of July, in the church I attended 
In the summer of 1832, I received from the Secretary of iht* 
American Colonization Society a letter announcing to me my ap 
poiiitment as its general Agent for the district conjposed of Ten 
nessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Thn 
compensation to be received for my services, though far inferior 
to the av^ails of my professional labors, was altogether liberal. 
It was, indeed, as much as I would have demanded, in the exist- 
ing state of the society's means, had it been left to me to fix the 
amount. After taking such time as I thought necessary for de 
liberation in a matter so nearly touching my private interest, 
against the advice of nearly all my friends I consented to under- 
take the agency ; so strongly was I impelled by the belief that it 
was a great work of philanthropy to which I was summoned, 
■And that it could eveii in the South, be conducted to eminent suc- 
<<^>;s, especially when undertaken by one of her own citizens 
(himself from boyhood a slaveholder) who could bring to the aid 
of prudence and a sound character only moderate qualifications 
of talent and address. The claims of colonization I presented 
very fully at nearly all the important points in the district assign- 
ed me, with a zeal that was unchecked by ordinary obstacles, and 
with a success disproportioned to be sure to the sanguine expec 
tations with which I had set out, but not perhaps to the genuine 
merits of the cause. I have thought proper, thus, very cui'sorily, 



JAS. G. birney's letter. 5 

to refer to the circumstances mentioiied above, not only to show 
that I have been in a situation affording good opportunities to 
judge of the operation of the principles upon which colonization 
has been recommended and urged upon the public mind, but that 
I have been habitually friendly to it ; zealous in promoting its 
success, and therefore inclined to indulge toward it a favorable 
judgment. 

It might not, however, be improper further to add, that Mr. 
Polk of vVashington arrived in Huntsvilleas Agent of the Ameri- 
can Colonizadori Society, in the end of 1829. After he had con- 
sulted with several of the most intelligent and philanthropic gen- 
tlemen of the place, together with myself, it was determined upon, 
in order to embody and excite to activity so much of public senti- 
ment as might be found favorable, to attempt the organizadon of 
an auxiliary ColonizaUon Society. In this effort, successful 
beyond what had been looked for, I gave such aid as I was capa- 
ble of giving, by an address to the assembly favorable to the 
{)roposition. The society, thus organized, contained within it the 
very best materials the place afforded, and its reception by the 
community was, at first, encouraging beyond expectation. 

This was the first instance of direct action in the South, for the 
benefit of any part of the colored population, of which I then had 
a personal knowledge. I was greatly encouraged at the favora- 
ble aspect of things on this, the first trial, for it was made in a 
town where, considering its size, there is unusual concentration of 
intelligence, and in the very midst of a population numbering a 
iriajority of blacks. At that time, I believed there was in the 
project so much of a vivifying spirit, that to ensure success it was 
only necessary for the people of the South once to become inter- 
ested in it, that there was in it so much of the energy of life that 
it required nothing more than once to be set on foot, to put beyond 
all question its continuance and growth. As auxiliary to the im- 
pulses of benevolence, I calculated upon the selfish advantages to 
the South. These I thought, could be so clearly and powerfully 
exhibited, that there would be none to gainsay or resist, and that, 
by the union of benevolence and selfishness, the co-operation of 
the whole South might be secured. I unhesitatingly declare, that 
the total incongruity of these two principles did not stiike my 
mind as it has done, since I witnessed their dissociable and mutu- 
ally destructive energy. Of the truth of this remark, the Hunts- 
ville society will furnish good evidence, for notwithstanding its 
auspicious beginning, and the exciten»ent of eloquent and animat- 
ing addresses, delivered, at different times, by genUemen of disthi- 
guished ability, it never was efficient, its excitability wore away 
as it advanced in age, and it protracted a languishing existence 
until last autumn, when, I apprehend, it terminated its being, 
except in name. 



6' 



JAS. G. BIKNEY S LETTER. 



Other instances might be given tending t(3 confirm the same re 
mark. Mr. Polk succeeded, under the ir.ost encouraging circum- 
stance.-;, in organizing a Stale Socicli/, at Tuscaloosa, the seat of 
government. It was whilst the Supreme Court, and the Legisla- 
ture of the state were in session. The most conspicuous gentle- 
uiHjn, jncmbers of the bar, bench, and of the general assembly, 
bacairie members, and very many of them, if I mistake not, life 
uir^mbers. This society, a year afterwards, held its regular 
Mjeeting. The proceedings were somewhat of a dissentious, not 
to say di-iorderly character. It never met again. In 1832, 1 
made an attempt, in the prospcutioij of my agency, to revive ir, 
but its vitality was thoroughly exj^ended. 

In New Orleans, as in Alabama, a colonization society had 
been formed a few years ago, consisting of more than eighty 
members; and including in that number many gentlemen of the 
highest distinction for private worth, intelligence and public in- 
fluence in the state. When I was there, last year, it was with 
great difficulty that some half dozen me:nl)ers could l>e assembled 
to transact any business connected with the advancement of the 
cause ; the expedition for Liiberia just on the eve of sailing from 
that port, produceil no friendly excitement; the vessel [Ajax] 
carrying out one hundred and fifty emigrants was • permitted to 
loose from the levee, with no efibrt by the friends of colonization 
there, to produce the least throb of symjiathy in the pwblic mind ; 
and a cily meeting of which (\ug notice had been carefully given, 
failed utterly, in consequence of the absence or the fears of gei> 
tlemen who had promised to participate in the public exercises. 
I mention the institution of the society at Huntsville, an<i its de- 
cline, not for the purpose of giving its history as a matter of in- 
terest in itself, nor solely, with the view of showing my friendly 
disposition towards colonization ; but as an instance (to which 
the condition of the others mentioned, as well as that of all the 
smaller societies throughout the region in w hich I acted, might 
be added,) falling under my own observation, tending to demon- 
strate the truth of a ))roposition that every day's experience is 
making more palpable to my mind, that there is not in coloniza- 
tion any ])rinciple, or quality, or constituent substance fitted so to 
t«;Il upon the hearts and minds of men as to ensure contiimed and 
persevering action. If thtre be the connexion supposed, between 
the fiicts introduced above, and tiiu proposition just stated, may i 
not ask you, sir, if the little that ha.-s been done for colonization 
by our own state, where years ago it was welcomed with open 
arms, and withiji whose liiuits I could not state from personal 
knov/ledge that it has a single enemy, and the present crippled 
and un moving condition of the 'numerous societies, auxiliary to 
that whose correspondence you so ably conduct, do not furnish 
legtimony very powerful, if not irresistible, that the whole matter 



JA8. 

has not in it any principlie exciting to strenuous— to continuous 
iiction ? 

In statiiiir the objections that exist in tny mind to colonization, 
I wish it to be understood dis;tinctly at the outset, that I do not, 
in the slightc^it do^rrce, itnpute to the benevolent indi\i(hiul» by 
whom it was orii>inatcd, or even to a large majority of those by 
whom it is still warmly cherished, any unworthy motive as 
jr>rt)m[)ti!ig their zeal. Whilst I very cheerfully attribute to this 
majority stainless purity of motive in what they have done, an<l 
are doin;; ; and further, a strong persuasion, that it is the only 
means of rescue from the j)olluting and crushing folds of slavery ; 
I should be insincere, were I not to state my belief, that coloniza- 
tion, if not supj)orted, is not objected to, by many a keen sighte<l 
slave holder in the abstract, who has pers}>icacity enough to dis- 
cern that the dark system in which he has involved himself, his 
posterity and their interests, will remaiti as unaffected by it, as 
mid-ocean by the discharge of a pop gun on the beach. 

•Nor do I intend to be understood, as making any objection to 
the pin-posp of the American Colonization Societ}', as expressed 
in its (ronstitution, " to promote a plan for colonizing (with their 
consent) the free j)eo|)le of color residing in our country, in 
Africa, or such other place as Congress may deem most expedi- 
ent." If its operations be limited to the gratification of an intel- 
ligent wish, on the part of the free jjeople of color, or any other 
class of our population, to remove to Africa, with the view of es- 
tablishing a colony for the prosecution. of an honest connnerce, 
or for any lawful ]»urpose whatever, there could exist, so far as I 
can see, no reasonable grounil of opposition, any more than to 
the migration, that is now in progress, of crowds of our fellow 
citizens to Texas or any other part of Mexico. If, on the other 
hand, it is meant, that this " consenV may lawfully be obtained 
by the imposition of civil disabilities, disfranchisenient, i?xclusion 
fnvn sympathy ; by making the free colored man the victim of a 
relentless ])voscrij)tion, prejudice and scorn ; by rejecting alto- 
gether his oath in courts of justice, thus leaving his property, his 
j)erson, his wife, his children, and all that .God has by his' very 
constitution made dear to him, ujiprotectcd from the outrage and 
insult of every unfeeling tyrant, it becomes a solenui farce, it i>^ 
the refinement of inhumanity, a mockery of all mercy, it is crurl, 
unmaidy, and meriting the just indignation of every American, 
and the noble nation that bears his name. To say that the ex- 
pression of " consent" thus extorted is the approbation of the mind, 
is as preposterous as to uffjrm that a man consents to surrender 
his purse, on the condition that you spare his life, or, to be trans- 
ported to Botany Bay, when the band of despotism is ready to 
stab him to the heart. 



8 Jas. g. birney's letter* 

NoWj if the Colonization Society has done — is doing this ; if 
it has succeeded in bringing around it, the learned, the religious, 
the influential ; if by the multiplied resolutions of favoring legis- 
latures, of ecclesiastical bodies, with their hundred conventions, 
assemblies, conferences, and associations, it has so far exalted 
itself into the high places of public sentiment, as itself to consti 
tute public sentiment 5 if it has acquired great authority over the 
mind of this people, and uses it to encourage, and not to check 
this heartless and grinding oppression ; if, instead of pleading for 
mercy to the weak and helpless, it sanctifies the most open and 
crushing injustice, or even connives at it, by urging the necessity 
of colonization upon the alleged ground of the immutabihty of 
this state of things, for the perpetuation of which it is lending all 
its influence ; if, I .say, it has done this, its unsoundness, its foul 
ness cannot be too soon, or too fully exposed, that the just sen- 
tence of condemnation may be passed upon it b} every good man 
and patriot of the land. 

A'V hen, also, in the progress of its developement, it throws itself 
before the public, as the only eflfectual and appropriate remedy 
for slavery, demanxling upon that ground, of the whole country a 
monopoly of its support, it is objectionable, as seems to me, be- 
cause of the principles upon which it is pressed u})on the atten- 
tion of the community, because of their practical results, an<l of 
the utter inadequacy of colonization, whilst in connection with 
these principles, to the extinguishment of slavery. In order that 
the objections may be more distinctly exhibited, they will be 
arranged under the several general heads of 

1. The practical influence of colonization upon the 

WHITES. 

2. Upon the colored population ; — and 

3. Upon Africa. 

I. The practical influence of Colonization upon the Whiies. 

All great revolutions of sentiment in masses of men, calling, of 
course, for a corresponding change of action, must lay their foun- 
dation in some great principle (or principles) undeniably true in 
theory; which all the facts pertaining to it, when taken singly 
tend to prove, and taken together^ fully establish as true, 
to all unprejudiced minds. Thus in religion — the great truth — 
mmi's entire alienation from God — is the only one that has ever 
been used successfully, to make men feel their need of the remedy 
proposed by the gospel. All paring away, or attenuation of this 
truth has, I apprehend, been attended with a corresponding in- 
effipacy in the a])plication of the remedy, and simply on this 
ground; that the various phases, and conditions, and circumstances 
of man's moral malady, tend individually, to indicate this truth 



JAs. G. birney's letter. 9 

and no other, and in the aggregate to establisJi it. The progress 
of the tem|)erance cause will supply another llustration of this 
position. The great truth here was — that Alcohol taken in any 
quantity — and in proportion to that quantity, is injurious to persons 
in health. Many attempts at public reformation had been made 
in former times, on the diluted principle, that alcohol is injurious 
oidy when taken immoderately. They were all unsuccessful 
When the total exclusion from ordinary use of ardent spirits, 
was insisted upon, and a nearer aj)proach to the true principle \va-< 
ina<le, there followed a proportionate success — so great, indeed, 
as to entide the change effected in the habits of the nadon to the 
name of ' Reformation.' But, I doubt not, if it is to be made 
still more thorough, or even to be held at its present state of ten- 
;-ioti, a resort to the true principle of entU*e abstinence from every 
thing alcoholic will be found necessary. 

Again, Sir. What was the great truth, or principle, upon whicli 
th« American Revolution was supported.? Was it any other 
tU.ui this, that ^ all men are created eqtial?' This was the Uiu.k 
throwing out towards heaven its noble branches, ' that ^^q/ <</7^ 
endowed by their Creator, with the inalienable rights to life, liberty 
imd the pursuit of happiness.^ You, I am sure, Sir, do not be- 
lieve, that this pnncji)le, had it suffered the least adidteration, 
woidd have been sufficiently vivifying to produce the great revo- 
lution that it did produce, in our condition; or, that had it been 
polluted by the smallest ingredient recognizing as true, the right 
of one man to reign over his fellow tjien, for his oumm\d not their 
benefit; or that a knot of nobility were entitled to privileges inde- 
pendently of merit; or that men might jusv'y be compelled to woi- 
shij) God in a way which did violence to their consciences; or, that 
in fine, had the least particle of imf)ure leaven been kneaded into 
the elevating declaration of man's equality, it would have retain- 
ed that indistructible vigor, which is, this moment, undermining 
the foi^ndation of every tyrant's throne on earth. 

Whatever of truth there may be in the foregoing remarks, I 
wish to apply it to the subject before us; to the attempt to show, 
that the principles on which colonization is recommended to the 
nation, are unsound, imperfect and repugnant — Therefore, that 
they will not, nay cannot, so long as man's nature remains as li 
is, operate efficiently in j)roducing a revolution in our ]jresei!i 
habits so great as to extinguish slavery. The very nature of mind, 
confiiMned by all olwervation, ])rovcs the correctness of this re- 
mark, that, when men are to be mav-ed from their present ]-osi- 
tion still further on, in a line iciih their Iiabits, or prejudices, 
or passions, a false principle may be altogether adequate, but 
when in opposition to them, the principle on which action is de- 
inanded must be founded in the nature of things — it must be truth. 



10 JAS, G, birney's letter. 

Now the groijnds upon which colonization has asked for favor 
from the people of the United States, are mainl}' these. 1. That 
slavery, as it is, in our country, is justifiable, or that immediate 
emancipation is out of the question. 2. That the free colored 
people are, of all classes in the community, the most annoyin^^ to 
us; the ?nost hopeless, degraded, vicious and unhappy, and that, 
therefore — 3. We ought, in the exercise of a sound policy foi 
ourselves, and from sympathy with these people, to remove them 
to Africa, where the causes of their degradation, vice, and misery 
will not follow them. 4. That we shall, in sending them to Liberia, 
by their instrumentality in civilizing and christianizing Africa, 
pay in some measure the debt we owe to that continent for the 
mighty trespass we have committed upon her. . 

Here we see a strange mixture of true principles, with others 
that are utterly false. No one will controvert, for a moment, the 
position that we ought to feel sympathy, aye, even to weeping, 
with that poor and defenceless class among us, whose degradation 
and misery originated in the avarice and pride of our ancestors, 
and hav^e been kept alive by the same active passions in us their 
descendants. Nor will it be more disputed, when it is remem- 
bered, that we have not been the least efficient of the parties in 
the great confederacy made up of Pagan and Mahomedan, Cath- 
olic and Protestant, Christian and Infidel, that has torn from At- 
rica more than FORTY MILLIONS of her sons and daughters, 
consigning them to hopeless and cruel bondage; so cruel, so 
hopeless, that there remains not to this day, of that vast number, 
wove than one fourth, after taking into the account all their natu- 
ral increase. I repea'., when this is remembered in all its fla- 
grancy, no one will deny that we owe to that ill-fated people a 
debt of frightful amount. 

But these true principles, founded in sympathy with the in- 
jured, and in a desire to repay what justice deinands; tending too, 
in their fair and unobstructed influence, to the annihilation of 
slavery, are adulterated, rendered ineffectual, by being mixeu up 
with others that are, in my view, totally false an<l unsound: viz. 
that it is a laiv of necessity that the free colored people should 
forever remain degraded and unhappy whilst they continue 
among us, and, that it is lawful, right, just, before God and man, 
m certain cases, in existing circumstances, (of which circumstances 
the Avrong-doers arc the exclusive judges,) to hold our fellow man 
as property. So far from this compound operating to the exter- 
mination of slavery, it is all that the v(;ricst slaveholder in the ab- 
stract (if there be such a thing) asks; make to him but this con- 
cession, admit but this single ingredient, that, in present circum- 
stances, he may hold \ns fellow creature as properly, and you may 
make up the remainder of the mass with whatever ingredients 
best suit your feelings or your fancy; you may thunder away with 



JAS. G. BIRNEY's letter. 11 

j'our colonization and gradual emancipation speeches * until the 
winds do crack their cheeks,' he feels easy and unconcerned, 
knowing, that his interests are under convoy of a false principle, 

Eowerful in its influence, and overmastering, when running, as it 
oes here, coincident with habits, and prejudices, and passions. 
Let us suppose, for a moment, what would be the probable 
train of reflections, coursing through the mind of a slaveholder, 
whose conscience had been somewhat aroused and was on the 
3ve of healthful pulsations, after having heard one of our most 
ingenious and eloquent colonization speeches: ' 'Tis true, God 
has said he has made of one blood all nations of men; that he has 
ref[uired of us at all times, to do justice and love mercy; and, in 
the histoiy of the good Sammitan, has taught us that oilmen are 
our neighbors: — He has enjoiiied upon us love to our neighbor as 
to ourselves, a love that worketh no ill to him, and whatsoever u'c 
would tJiat men should do unto us, we should so do unto them. It 
is further true, that God lias declared 1 mself the avenger of the 
poor and the oppressed, and that he has hitherto, inseparably con 
nected with slavery, the corruption an.l effeminacy of the en 
slavers; that he has brought upon all nations who have persisted 
in it, judgments desolating and awful, and given to the oppressed, 
triumph in the land, that has looked upon their sufferings and de- 
gradation. I remember, too, that the Fathers of our country 
when contending against tyraimy, declared in the most solemn 
manner, that all men are created equal, that their right to life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, is a truth that has been evolv- 
ed, not from a complicated train of premises, but that it is ' self- 
evident,^ and, that whenever any form of government becomes 
destructive to hfe, and interferes unnecessarily with our pursuit of 
happiness, it is the right of the oppressed to abolish it. 

But what do 1 now hear, from statesmen, orators, politicians, 
doctors of law, and doctors of divinity, in fine, from men, whom 
the whole country delight to honor for their intelligence, patriot- 
ism and religion, and who know much more of this delicate sub- 
ject than I do? With one consent, they say in substance, that 
we are not under obligation, now, to do unto others as we would 
they should do unto us; or if we are, our slaves whose lot has 
been ordered by God himself so much below ours, cannot certain- 
ly be included in the number to whom this obligation is due; 
that all men are not created equal; in as much as some are author- 
i/.ed, nay i-equircd, under existing circumstances, to withhold fj-oni 
others their liberty, to block up every avenue to their happiness, 
to abridge their lives by reducing them to slavery, and inflicting 
upon them all its concomitant enormities. Or if men are created 
equal, education, and the influences under which their character 
has been formed, have made them unequal; therefore, if there be 
found a Hrge nuuilier of our fellow-men reduced to tni^ ineqiiali- 



12 JAS. G. RIRNEY-.S l.nTTER. 

ty, sunk into tlie lov, grouuus of slavory, ajul suffering its hope 
destroying sorrows, they niust he there detained ^ for the present,^ 
' as things now are,^ until they can he wraiUmlly prepared — it may 
he, after some half dozen generations have Jjone to their eternal 
home — for their safe transfer from the sufl'ocating feculence of 
slavery to the pure an«l heulth-jjiving air of the high-grounds of 
freedom. And in reference to slavery itself, I hear it said — how- 
ever hateful, and wicked, an<lde?er\ ing of the execration of every 
gciitleman and christian, it may he, hi the abstract, however sin- 
ful our remote ancestors may have Iwen in sudering it to he ^«»- 
posed on them, and the intervening generations in continuing it, 
yet, in the process hy which it has heen transtnitted down to us. 
notwithstanding its victims have heen multiplieci to MILLIONS, 
and cries, and tears, and curses, have in unhroken mass, ascend- 
ed, day and night, to God's throne, it has heen purified from all 
its guilt and injustice, and we now, instead of rehuke and censuie, 
deserve somewhat, at least, of sympathy and prai?e for suhmitting, 
with so much patience, to the evil of keeping our ' neighhors," 
loaded with chains and fetters of interminable bondage. 

And am I not further told, that the free colored people of our 
country are the most degraded and unhapj)y class of the commu- 
nity; is it not continually asserted, and I begin almost to believe 
it, that our slaves are in a better condition, more hapj*y, and con- 
tented than they ? Would it not then be a great departure fron 
the law of love, a want of charity to my trusty slave, whose fathers 
served mine, and who is now faithfirlly serving me, to release 
him from bondage, and bestow upon him that treedom which 
mast degrade him from his present comparatively enviable caste, 
and consign him to one in which he and all his posterity njust 
torever remain miserable? Now in all this conflict of old trutlis, 
of the truths of God's word, and of our gov«.'rnment, with the 
prevailing and popular commentaries upon them, what shall I do? 
This I will do — To say the least of it, it is a ' ilelicate question;' 
it has intrinsic difficulties, therefore 1 ought to let it alone. My 
own case is a peculiar one; I am in circumstances of which no 
one is qualified, or has (of this 1 am pretty sure) authority to 
judge except myself. These may and probably will continue un- 
changed during my life, and, for aught that aj)pears, they may 
remain 'present circumstances,'' to my great, great grand chiklren; 
and thus they, too, may enjoy all the advantages, without the sin 
of slavery. However, let the sin and danger be what they may 
in future, posterity will take care of itself; ' providences' will re- 
lieve them; it is no business of mine; so I will let alone the whole 
matter.' 

Now, sir. this is a case only supposed to occur on th« presenta- 
tion of some ©f the grounds of colonizationists in relation to 
slavery. But, I doubt not, it is often an actual case, and that 



JAS. G. birney's letter. 13 

thus slavery as il is in practice'^ is justified; the consciences of 
men are put at ea>;f!-, the great duty of niuii to do unto others as 
he would they should do unto him, and the great truth, that ' all 
men are created equal,'' on which our republican institutions stand, 
virinaUy lived down. 

If to the above considerations in reference to slavery, arisiiii^ 
out of the manner in which that subject is treated by coloiii- 
/.ationists, there be added the effects of a sentiment of hostility 
aijuiust the free colored people, excited in the whites by a per- 
severing reiteration of the j9o/«cj/ of removing from among us that 
class of ]iersons, because they are not only pestilent to us all, but 
dangerous, by their very presence, to the full repose of the slave- 
holder, together with i\w irritated and indignant feelings which 
such a course is calculated to produce in their minds, the clue is 
furnished to account for the facts, that inider the colonization re- 
gimen, slavery, as a syslem, remains unshaken, and that Liberian 
emigration, so far as the free colored people are concerned, is al- 
most entirely abandoned. 

If any of the conclusions above indicated be true, viz. that the 
system of slavery in our country remains unshaken, and that we 
arc living down the greaifoimdatiofi principle of the government ; 
that a persecuting and malignant spirit has been excited against 
the free colored ])eople ; that the consciences of men, whilst 
they are per|)etrating the greatest wrong that can be perpetrated, 
this side the grave, against their fellow men, are put at ease, it is 
greatly to be deplored : and if on itnpartial examination, the 
cause of all this be detected in colonization principles ; or if it 
is only probable, that it may be detected there, with what alacrity 
should we abandon a course of action in which a great portion 
of the iii/luencc of the nation has been engaged, so injurious to 
us as a people, and to the great cause of humanity and freedom 
throughout the world. 

* I would conlribute my mite to di.sabuse the public miixl and relieve (tic 
didcussion of plaveiy tVoin the iiirtuence uf the expression " slavery in the 
abstract." This drug has been powerfully narcotic to the consciences of 
f-laveholders. ^Many who are very well content with the enormities of slavery 
IN PKA.CTICE, have to it ix the abstract a hatred that is perfect. 
Let us try it by analogies, to see whether any result that is not absolutely 
I idiculons can be obtained. A man acts fraudnlently towards you and all 
his neighbors, yel, from his heart he hates fi-and and dishonesty in the al)- 
-iract ! I Another nieets you every eveninir with the wages of your d:iil\ 
hil'or in vonr pocket — l)v thieats and force he wrests them from you. Now 
this man, as much as any otlirr man, detests robbery in the abstract ! ! 
More especially, if he has accompanied each instance of violence with as 
much food as will keep you alire. It would seem to be not more unreason- 
able to talk of laws, or morals, or astronomy, or chemistrvj food, or rai- 
ment, or lodging in the abstract, than of slavery in the abstract. 
If the death blow can be given to slavery in practice, the abstract will 
\9Carcely be worth contending about. 
\ 2 



14 JAS. G. birney's letter. 

In searching for the true cause of the apparent permanency 
of slavery, anterior to the direct efforts made in the last two or 
three years to overthrow it, I will not reject as unworthy of coii- 
jiideration, the state of the pul)lic n)iiKl during the war of 1812- 
15, when it was looking a^roaf? rather thnn at home ; nor the 
condition of the country upon the icturn of peace ; the high 
prices of southern })roductions, and the groat southern region that 
had been acquired and was thrown into the market by the gov- 
ernment, soon after the war, iji the very midst of slaveholdei*s. 
It is nothing more than just to take these things into the estimate 
of cause, when it is attempted to account for the comparative in- 
ertness of the people of the United States on the subject of t-l;i- 
very. But their effect was, to occasion only neglect of consider- 
ation : there was in them no impugning of leading principles,^ 
no adulteration of the great truths asserted by our revolutionary 
fathers, ' at a time that tried men's souls.' Such obstacles as 
these never could have successfully opposed, for any length of 
time, the disencumbered principles and intelligence of our coun- 
trymen. Nothing could, so. long, have withstood their united 
vigor, unless it had possessed some accident, fitted to draw them 
away from the contemplation of ])ure truth to some counterfeit 
presentinent of it — to divert their mental and moral vision from 
the clear fountain of light, to its false images ; which, ever, when 
they exist, are seen near the great luminary in the heavens. 

Does it look like slrainin^ to find the connexion between 
cause and effect, when our nationnl inertness is ascribed to the 
principle so diligently inculcated by colonizationists, that slavery, 
however sinful and wrong it may have been heretofore, and may, 
possibly, be hereafter — 7ioiCy tinder existing circumstances is neither 
sinful nor wrong ? To what else can you attribute the alleged 
melioration of slavery wi many ])arts of the country r which in 
most instances amounts to nothing more than an excuse, an ar- 
gument sent forth in the trappings of liumanity for its 'cotslinu= 
ance. How else has it happened, that whilst we have, in ou! 
•leclaration of Independence, i;i our general and state con^titu 
tions, continually presented to us the purest princ.i)>les of liberty, 
divested of all ambiguity, the most unequivocal atlirmations of 
the rights of man, as man, uiiitetl to the freest practice under 
them, that is enjoyed on earth ; how liapi)ensit, I ask, that, whii.-t 
the systems of slaveiy reared for centuries in other countries ; in 
Mexico, in Coloi-nliia, Gautcnala — in fine, in all the Republics of 
iho. South, humbly as we rate them when eotnpared with oiu- 
>elves ; that even W(;st India bf)n<iagc, inveterated by use antl 
haf)it, sustained by wealth and tirl;! and talent, has by the force 
iff truth been dashed in shiveis to the ground, whilst ours looks 
like a wall of adamant j that, whilst nearly all the civilized na- 
'ions of the globe have broken the yoke of the slave, we stand. 



J AH. G. BIRNKY'S LETTER. 



15 



tollowed with Brazit, the most contemptible of all despotisms, 
huwliiig out to the world ' ;ill lueii are erefited equal;' whilst the 
scourire, dripj/mg with the blool, is br<uidi?he(l by hands besmear- 
f'\ with the gore of nearly three milHons of our fellow men ? If, 
sir, tiiare beany cause other than the principles by which colo- 
!ii/, ition is urged, 1 have not beeii so fortunate as to discover it, 
WiW it l);cont>"iided th:it slavery, as a system, is not lo all h\}' 
|! vitMM.'.^, more conMrajefl among us than it was fifteen or eigh- 
(:-.'n yt^-M-.-i aio ? Will it i)e said, that, so far ns the nation feeU 
n 1 rh.-' sn!»j('i't, there has been a change favorable to the enlarge 
iiir'i! of tlie slave ? Where will the evidence be sought to f^tis- 
V ;i 1 tiii" aitir;nati.)n ? In th^^ condition of things, as they relate 
1) slavery in the Distrii-t of Columbia, over which, it is undi-- 
jrj.t'd that Congress possesses power< of legislation as fidl as 
ihoie of a state over the rerritury withisi irs limits ? Will it U^' 
f Mi'id in the large and well arranged depots for the reception and 
'■ rilinciiient of slaves ? In the spacious factories erected and 
iiirnished within the District for the prosecution of the slave 
ri-.ide ; throwing into contempt by the extent and regularity «d" 
rheir l)usiness, the factories of the busiest traffickers in huniMii 
rt'-sh on the const of Africa ? Is it to, be found iii the miblushing 
ad'.eriisements of the slavers, published too in the most respetM- 
able Gazettes of Washington and Alexandria, declaring that 
' they are in ihe market,- that the shambles for men and women 
and little children, for fathers and mothers, and sisters and broth- 
t*r«, and wives and husbands, 6?/ the hundred, are opened dav 
and night, in the very purlieus of the Capitol, so near, that the 
shrieks of sundered friends and relatives may almost penetrate to 
rhft chambers of deliberation ? Shall we look for the proof in 
iho regular slav^e trade that is carried on from the District, by sea 
and by land, to our Southern ports ; a trade as regidarly and sys- 
tematically conducted as any that is driven between New York 
and Liverpool or Havre ? Or in the droves of slaves purchase*! 
h\l members of Congress, and either conducted by themselves in 
j)erson, or by proxy to their quarters ? ^ Or, if proof that sla- 
verj', as a systeuj, is .shaken, cannot be found in any of these 
sources, shall we resort to Congress itself, the great representa- 
tive of national sentiment ? Wliat do we find here ? A be- 
confuig delil)erati(j!i on this great subject ; a respectful attention 
to the scores of petitions praying that slavery in the District, 
where its power \s undisputed, may be abolished ? No, Sir, not 
so. The numerous petitions presented, during the very last ses- 
sion, were referred for burial without hope of resurrection, to the 

■• An honorable Senator Ims been seen, several hundred miles from 
Wiisiiinj^ton, convoying a lot of slave;>, pnrciiased during his official at- 
tendance in that city, almost to the very doors of the huts intended for their 
residence. 



16 .IAS. G. BIK.NEV'S LLTTEH. 

Coininitttju on tlie District of Columbia — and the bare incidental 
iutroductioii of the suhjectj on the discussion of a bill granting 
permission to Edward Brooke to bring into the District two slaves, 
had well nigh set thi; House of Representatives in flame. The 
slaveholder, whenever the subject of emancipation within the 
District, or in any other way, is brought up, however incidental it 
may be, straightw^iy vociferates to the tree States' representatives 
' hands ofl'— don't touch this delicate subject — you know nothin;* 
about it — it belongs exclusively to us of the South, who know all 
/d)out it — if you persist in meddling with it, the Union will fl}^ to 
atoms — for we know, as surely as you abolish slavery in the Dis- 
trict, you will attempt its abolition m the States.^ 

The logical dress of the outcry is this, ' that if Congress choose 
to exert a power which is altogether uneontroverted, they will, 
Iherefore exert a power which no one has ever attributed to them, 
:md which they utterly disclaim.' For further illustration — I atn 
inilebted to my neighbor $1000, and refusing to pay, the coer- 
irion of the lau- is brought to his aid. Called upon for my df^- 
ft'Uf'f' to the action, I admit, in the fullest manner, the justice of 
i!ie claim — yet still plead, that if the court aid my adversary in 
lie recovery of a just debt, its aid will, therefore, noon be invoked 
for the recovery of an unjvM debt. Now, Sir, 1 ask, can there 
hp any hearty desire in Congress, or in the people whom they 
! epiesent, for the extermination of slavery, anij cohere, when the 
MMJority are buHie<l by such threats, and satisfied with such logic 
I-; this ? And is there not adcjuate cause to accoimt for this 
i s.k of proper feeling and right (tpinion on the subject of slavery, 
TO bi' found in these inculcations annually and eloquently uige«i 
in the very capital of our country — ' that slavery now, is not 
».^'/'0/?o* — that emancipation ouifht not to be encmiraged, unless in 
c.innection with expatriation and removal to ^^ifrica — and that it ia 
i!;i impossible thing for the colored people to remain here free except 
ill it -ilate of hopeless degradation and unhappiness ?' I cannot en- 
tertaiii a doubt, Sir, that you will perceive, and cheerfully admit, 
!l) i! such doctrines, if received by the community, naturally tend 
io produce the listlessness of which I have been speaking: — 
whether or not they are Colonization doctrines, I leave to you and 
i!!v readers to decide. 

•1. Their appropriate tendency is to excite a malignant and 
TMsecuting spirit against the free colored people — andnaore rigor- 
.is enactments against the slaves. If this be the legitimate re- 
^■;dt, you, I know, will agree with me in saying, there is in it a 
-liametul lack of magnanimity and manhood. For a people 
.vhom God has raised from small beginnings to be great and 
commanding — to whom he has opened his liberal hand, supply- 
ing every temporal want that they can feel — upon whom he haa 
bestowed liberty, civil, political, religious ; great moral and intel- 



17 

lectual power ; for such a peo])le to descend from the ' heaven 
kissing hill ' on which they hiive been placed, to the low and 
odious task of persecuting a ])Oor, a weak and defenceless class 
of our population, whii^h wc have, so far, done every thing to 
degrade ; nothing to elevate, — to abuse and vilify then), that they 
may be compelled to ' consent'' to expatriation ; and all this, too, 
under the plea of humanity, philanthropy, religion — Oh, Sir, it is 
a nink ofl'ence before God. He gives power, that it may be u>ed 
for good, not for evil — for the j)rotection of the helpless, not for 
their destruction — and he has I'leclared, that to visit the widow 
nm] the orphan, is evidence of that pm-e and undefiled religion 
with which he is well pleased. Nature — the moral constitution 
<ii" nwtn revolts against oppression of this kind : — For observe, 
Sii-. a knot of sturdy lads imposing upon a puny and decrejMd 
Ktorher, — do not feelings of indignation at such conduct arise in 
y.nn* breast beyond the power of suppression r I feel assured 
fhey do, Sir, not only in ijours but in the breast of every one who 
i-j not himself a tyrant. Thus, ojiposed by the benevolence of 
G.vl nnd the moral constitution of man, no such systeu^ can, on a 
- iHMt scale, be ultimately successful. 

However, to the proof, that this persecuting and rigorous spir- 
iv, hi\< h.pen groiomg- among us, since colonization principles have 
tjpen generally received by the community. It is to be found, in 
rhe most unequivocal source — the Imcs of nearly all the slave 
-ifatps. Take for specimens a few. I have seen the son of a 
white woman sold into perpetual slavery by the Cornmon wealth 
of Virginia — attempting to regain by legal process in a distant 
St:\te his long lost liberty. 

Has a free colored man, by his industry, secured for himself 
and those dependent upon him, a permanent place of residence, 
or do the avails of his economy and exertions he in real property ? 
Arts of banishment exist compelling him to remove within ninety 
.lay*. Does he seek employment in distant commerce, or is he 
hilt a simple mariner on board a vessel entering the ports of sev- 
erd\ of the slav^ states, either for purposes of trade or through 
stre=5s of weather? He is thrown into prison as a felon, and 
there detained at the Captain's cost [which eventually must be 
his] until the vessel is ready to depart. 

fs he charged unth a criminal offence.^ He is tried — not as 
f<)rmerly, before tribunals that were really competent to decree 
jusrice— but by coynmissions made up of men, selected for the 
most part, without reference to their knowledge of the laws of 
ih*^ state, either civil or criminal. 

Dner* the mind of a slave rise above his low condition — doe** 

he thirst for knowledge, its proper food, and above all for that 

knowledge ' which is life eternal .-* ' His master, should he teach 

bim, is subjected to indictment and fine. His fellow-slave, should 

2* 



18 JAS 

he instruct him, or slioulil the frt>e colored person undertake the 
task, or give or sell him any hook, he is whipped or fined, or 
whipped and fined at discrdion. Docs the intelligent free col- 
ored tnan look with coni[>assif)n uj)on his brctln-en, bond or free 
--behold their degradation — their ignorance ? Docs he witness 
how unpitied they go out of this world- how unprepared to enter 
ispoii that which is to conic, — docs he thence desire, with the zeal 
nl" his Master, and as his minister, to declare to them the glad 
Uf'ws that H Saviour has died for them, and loves them, and de- 
•ires them to be eternally happy ; to im|)i-esH upon them the ])nre 
and j)eaceable and comforting truths of his gospel? — should he at- 
tempt it in Virginia, he is scourged — so is every free colored 
j)prson or slave that listens to him. — These, Sir, and other kin- 
<lred iVuits are the results of a policy which insists upon the ban- 
ishment of the free colored people. 

3. — The influence of these j)rinciples is oj)j)osed to emancipa- 
tion. I am not unaware, that it has l)een supposed to be adjutory 
to emancipation ; and ])roof of this is offered in the 800 or 900 
slaves that have been trans])orted to Liberia. The fact, tluit about 
ihis number have been emancipated by transportation to Africa is 
.idnjitted. These are all the instances of emancipation, that can 
l>e attributed to the influence of colonization principle.s— for, when 
they insist that emancipation shoul<l never be divorced from de- 
portation, they cannot lay claim to the many thousand who are 
emancipated in this country, that they may, if they choose, re- 
main here, and who have remained here. It would be an un- 
fair pretension, to ascribe to the influence of ceitain principles, 
effects, which they have no natural and inherent tendenc}- to jjro- 
duce. But it is very confidently believed and asserted, that the 
discussion of colonization throughout our countr}', has incidcnlal- 
ly, brought up the subject of slavery to public consideration— and 
that to this are to be set down the numerous emancipations that 
have been granted, where the benefiiciaries have not been sent 
out of the country. I grant, it is jirobable, that in this way, 
many persons may have been led to see the duty of emancipa- 
tion, who would not, otherwise, have been conducted to a know- 
ledge of it. But would it not be altogether illogical to ascribe 
emancipations, in ike country, to a princii)le that insisted upon 
♦Muancipations out of the country? Fully as much so, it seems to 
me, as to ascribe the conversion of a man to the christian religion, 
to his having heard the ingenious arguments of an infidel — 
when, in truth, it may have been only the occasion uj)on which 
his mind discovered, for the first time, the weakness of infidelity, 
and the strength of the gospel. 

But, Sir, during all this time — these 16 or 17 years of gloom to 
the slave — what has not been lost to the cause of freedom and 
religion, by the substitution of a cowardly, incidental discussion of 



JAS, G. BIUNEY's LETTtH. 19 

slavery, for one which is manly and undisguised. If the i?ly and 
incidental presentation of it produce the effects with which it is 
credited, how much more rich, blessed, and abundant would they 
have been, had it been pressed openly and directly, yet kindly, 
upon the hearts and consciences and |Kitriolisni of this coiuniuni- 
ly ! It is to be feared, that wc, who hH^ o been supporters of 
colonization, have, thro' ignorance, l)ecn instrumental in pro- 
longing, at least through one lifctinjc, the dark reign of slavery 
on the earth, and in sending one generation of our fellow^ men, 
weeping witnesses of its bitterness, to a comfortless grave ! 

So thoroughly has been the inoculation of the public with the 
sentiment, that our slaves, if emancipated, must be removed from 
the country, that its effects are of surprising uniformity. Address 
men in this way — ' Do you not believe that slavery is sinful and 
indirect opposition to the ])rinciples of our government .^ ' the 
reply — almost ^vithout exception — is, ' what shall we do with onr 
slaves, if we manumit thenj t Where shall we send them ? It 
will never do, in the world, for them to remain among us — it is 
better to retain them as they are, indefinitely in slavery, than to 
liberate them here.' This feeling has led to cases of great appa- 
rent inhumanity and uncharitableness. One of these has come to 
my knowledge in so direct a manner, that I have no ground for 
doubting the truth of it in any particular. A ))erson living in a 
slave State is the owner of a good looking young man, who is 
permitted, on his parole of honor, to reside in Cincinnati — to re- 
ceive the hire for his own services from the gendeman in whose 
employment he is — not, in any part for his own use, but to be 
transmitted according to his [the slave's] discretion to his owner. 
He has learned to read and write, and has given, in his uniform 
conduct, the best evidence, that he is, in truth, as he professes to be, 
a Christian. He has never, in the least degree, violated his in- 
tegrity toward his owner, by retaining any of the fruits of his 
own toil, or by asserting his liberty as he might, at anytime, do 
in Ohio. His friends and connections are all residents of this 
country. This circumstance, united to a very unfavorable oi)inion 
of the present condition and future prosjiects of Liberia, has made 
him entirely averse to a removal thither. He has a strong de- 
sire to obtain his freedom, and has offered for it a large sum. 
His offers have been steadily met by a refusal, at any price — yet 
he has been ])romised his liberty gratuitously, if he will ' consent' 
to emigrate to Liberia. To this he entertains an insurmountable 
repugnance — preferring to renii«#4 in h»s ])resent condition, al- 
though his noble spirit is almost worn down with its hopelessness. 
Now. Sir, were it not for the prevalent opinion, that the colored 
man, whatever may be his intellectual or moral elevation — can 
never be respectable or happy among us, I doubt whether such 
a case as this, calling for the deepest sympathy, the most earnest 



20 JA5. G. birney's letter. 

commiseration, could have been found in the private annals of 
Western slavery. There is no countr), in its best state, that 
would not suffer loss by the banishment of such a man. 

4. — Tiiey are an opiate to the consciences of many, who 
would otherwire, in all probabiiity, feel deeply and keenly, the 
injiii-iice and the sin of sUve^y. They are the ])urchasc of a lit- 
tle 2iiore sleep, a litde more slumber. 1 have friends, dear to me, 
who would, in inlegrify, rank with the Cumilli, and the Fabricii, 
(ir.d in strenjjth of christian principle, fall but litde behind the 
martyrs of the church, — who have thus been persuaded to lay 
this flattering unction to their souls, ' that under existing circum- 
stances ' it is riuht before God, by syslcm, to take from the weak 
and the defenceless the daily proceeds of their labor, save what 
may be sufficient to support them in a state for the continuance 
of the extortion. And w!io does not perceive slavery to be this ? 
I UKi certain many of tiiem v.iii read tiiis, — such, I would ask, in 
all kituhiess, if, alter having attended the meeting of a Colonization 
Society, and contributed to its support their ten, twenty, or, it may 
l»e, tliftir fiCty doilars ; or after having heard a highly wrought 
and eloquent colonization s})eech, they have not seen in very 
' diiii effulgence,' the noble declaration of our Paiiiot Fathers — 
that all men are created equal 1 And heard in distant, and yet 
more distant peals, the thunder of God's word against the op- 
)>ressor of his poor .'* 

5, — Colonization principles have, in a great degree, paralyzed 
the power of the ti-uth, and of the ministry in the South. That 
the messages of the gos|)el have comparatively but little influence 
ujx)n n)ind, in the exclusively planting sections of the country, 
where the number of slaves is great, will not be denied by any 
impartial and considerate observer. This I am not inclined to 
attribute to any defect m the inherent power of the great truths — 
as applicable to Southern mind — adapted by Cod so wisely to the 
internal constitution of man. For there have been, asul there are 
yf^x^ daily overturned by them, sins as be^-ctfing ai^.d rs soul-de- 
suoying, as slavery. When 1 recollect, too, the condition of the 
itomnn Etn}jire, at the time when Paul preached in her voluptu- 
ous Uketronolis, and throughout her scarcely less voluptuous te- 
rra rchies: the aggravated S3'stc.m of slavery that prevailed there 
— the incontinence — the political corrunlicn — the private vice — 
and that over nil these Christianity chanted her mild triumphs, 
1 see no reason for distrusting her efficacy,, when fairly tried 
u})on aviv portion of our countrymen. But, when I further re- 
member, tiiat he was partaker in no vicious custom of the coun- 
try loading him to perpetrate injustice and to overlook mercy ; 
that whatever Impurity might be demanded by swial manners, 
or authorized by municipal institutions, he kept himself pure ; 
that, when thrown into the very midnight of Koman pollution, 



JA8. O. BIRNEY'S LETTER. 21 

his christianily was seen, emitting a clearer, purer and more 
quenchless lustre — the secret of his success is fully revealed. Be- 
hold, at the present time, a professed follower of Paul and of 
his Master — blessed, perhaps, with a sound education in letters 
and science — versed in christian lore — brought up in the land of 
tho/»Te; with a mind revolting.,' against slavery and every form 
i>f oppression ; sec him, making his way to the South, ready, 
with the fervor of a neophyte, to declare the messages of God's 
love to all for whom they were intended ; — see him, ahnoet a>« 
sotm as the introduction to the scene of action is past, beginning 
his labor of love by utterly neglecting 'to preach the gospel to 
I he poor ' — by lamenting the hard lot of masters, the evil of sla- 
very — complaining of the wickedness of the slaves, — excusing 
every thing in the slaveholder except acts of cruelty that rou-^e 
:i neighborhood to astonishment ; next, marrying a widow, or a 
w.inl, or a 'fortune,' with a retinue of his parishioners for hei- 
do\vry ; afterward, talking bravely of the price of cotton, and ot* 
h.^ti to niake it ; and, at last, in desperation, drumming iiu<> si- 
jpiice his agonizing and wailing conscience, by using the very 
book of God-s love to justify tnan^g oppression ; — seeing all this, 
}hH secret of his unsuccessfulness is made as clea#- as noon-day. 
Shivery has shorn him of his strength, and his hands are as indo- 
lent and uncertain in pointing out the way of life — if they point 
at all — as are the hands of a chronometer to point out the progress 
of lime during the last half hour previously to its running down. 
I am altogether unconscious of any feeling which would 
promy)t me to utter an unkind word against ministers of the gos- 
j-el in the South. There are amongst them, I know, men of the 
most sterling principle, — who, so far as they are individually con- 
cerned, have lived, and are yet living, elevated far above the peg- 
tilential influence of slavery. To such, in my apprehension, the 
most disinterested witnesses — I appeal for testimony in the case ; 
and ask, if the marriages of poor ministers with widows rich in 
slaves have not become so frequent as to take away from them 
their ' casual ' or ' accidental ' character, — if they have not brought 
a deep reproach upon the cause of religion, — and if those gen- 
'letnen, who have thus entangled themselves in the meshes of 
slavery, are not looked upon by the very people to whom they 
were sent, and who are in the same condemnation as ' blin<l 
watchmen, dumb dogs that cannot bark, sleeping, lying down to 
slumber .?' And further, whether those gentlemen, who, on the 
rare occasions of their preaching, rebuke with all authority the 
profanation of the Sabbath — the love of money, luxury, profanity, 
intemperance, &c. &c. — who have been heard to pray with all 
fervor, for the Poles, the Greeks, and all the down-trodden of 
foreign lands, have been ever heard, in any of their public min- 
istrationi, to prefer but one lisdess pr^yev for the conversion of 



22 JAS. O. EIR^VEY^S LETTER 

the slaveholder lo the doing of jusrice — liis heart to the love of 
nier«\v, and that the two millions of hi.* ' neighbors ' lying in 
bonda.^e ht;fore his eyes, ntigiit, by the force of christian principle 
be enlarged, and the oppressed amcr.g vs ^o iVee ? And, yet 
fiirther, tuc :iot such tiaveholding ministers somewhat warmer in 
their attachment to colonization, than the majoriiy of other men? 
Do not they insist upon its capacity fur the extermination of sla- 
very, as a reason why they do not themselves act more decisive- 
ly upon the subject ? and do they not, iti frequent instances, be- 
come angry and indignant at those who attempt to agitate their 
consciences, by holding up their own duty in reference to sla- 
\ ery ris:ht before them ? " 

Jiiit, sir, I am not unaware, that it may be said, 1 am attaching 
to colonization, consequences that flow solely from slavery, and 
that would be what they are, independently of colonization, or if it 
had never be^i thought of. I admit in the fullest manner the 
force of the remark. It contains the very substance of my ob- 
jection to('olonization — which is, that, although not onginati7ig — 
colonization has take7i up and sustained the vital principle of 
shivery, when it declares that slavery now is right. Add to this, 
that, if it does not, in so many words justify — it gives favor to an 
unscriptural, therefore unreasonable, prejudice against the col- 
ore»l man ; — it asserts the impotency of religion itself to efface ii 
— it practically converts this prejudice into the instrument by 
which he is persecuted, until he 'consent' to exile for life, among 
savage men and in a deadly clime. These principles, jointly or 
severally, are, in my view, objectionable ; and not the less so, 
!.o,Muse [introduced upon t!)e hoe! of the Missouri ([uestion] the\ 
have ever since been wielded by the power of talent, the authority 
(if patriotism, and the venerableness of religi.on, with an influence 
ihat has been pernicious to our own country — tiiat has sat with 
nighrmare pressure u|)on the cause of emanci})ation at home, as 
well as upon the cause of li'oeral principles throughout the world. 

When i assumed an agency for the American Colonization So- 
cjpry, one of the grounds upon which I mainly rested my hopes 
of success, was the co-operation of ministers of religion and la}- 
iiien, in their exanq:>le of immediate emancipation and transmis- 
sion of their slaves to Liberia. From my earliest recollections of 
-hivery, it seemed to be deplored by the religious, that thej^ could 
not liberate them to remain here, with any reasonable prospect 
of conferring a benefit tipon them. Nearly all t'ie Ecclesiastical 
bodies in the United States, hud j)asseil Resolutions favorable to 

* I have heard ir stated, and have no reason fur doubting the fact — that 
a iiK-inljer of h Christian church, in the Stite of Mississippi, was heard to 
say, that he would 1)»- delighted at the opp'>rtnaity < f acting as Execution- 
er to a difltiuguished :iI)olitioni>J wf New Yoi!; — if I mistake not, a mem- 
ber of the same church. 



JAS, G. BIRNEY S LETTER. 23 

African colonization, dec'ari'ii; — often, in no very measured 
terms, the great advantages to be derived by the colored people 
from a removal to Africa, their proper home — and the facilities 
afforded by colonization for ridding ourselves of slavey without 
shock or inconvenience. Whilst, in common with others, I had 
taken up the opinion, that the slaves of the country, where they 
were humanely treated, were, as a class, superior in worth to the 
free colored — I yet saw, that, with one consent, the latter were 
advised to emigrate to Africa — not only on their own account, 
but for the purpose of christianizing and civilizing th.it deeply in- 
jured continent. A fortiori, it seemed to m.e, that the.s.^ay^' should 
go, — and that now, no one could fail to see — and with deiight, — 
that, after years of lameiitation, at last a gateway for christian 
emancipation had, in the provi-.lcnce of God been opened, and a 
safe and iiap})y home found for the poor slave. JBut no : and 
hear the reason^. — 

Agent. — ' Why do you not send your slaves to Liberia, my bro- 
ther ?' 

Christian Slaveholder. — ' They are not qualified to go.' 

A. — What! none of them ? — when you have been advising the 
free people of color — the worst, as you allege, in the whole com- 
munity, to emigrate.' 

C. S. — ' Well, there may be some one or two of then) v*lio 
would do very well in Liberia — but they don't want to go. I 
have told them they might go, and they positively refuse.' 

A. — 'They do — do they? Come now, brother, be honest, 
as before God — and tell me what means you have used to per- 
suade them. I suppose, of course, you have correct information 
concerning Liberia, or you would not have advised any one i<» 
emigrate thither. Have you, then, told them of the prosperity oC 
the industrious — of the religious privileges — the civil liberty ? 
Have you communicated to them a knowledge of the facts wliich 
satisfied you, that it was the proper home for the black m;in - - 
that it was only there where he could be happy and fren irjdccd : 
Hive you used that jjersuasive influence which your superior ii'- 
trlhgeuce, and a uniformly kind and ingenuous conduct toward 
hini have necessarily given you ? or, have you, on the other hau;', 
told him nothing aijout it r Or, otherwise, that Liberia is in Ai- 
rica-— inhabited i)y naked savages, and lions and tigers, and ai! 
^=>rts of noxious animals, and venonious and devouring repiil; > 
uu:\ serpents — that, it is siv or seven thousand miles over th;' 
a -can, and that, if he ciiose, after hearing this, he nfight go ai;«i 
vv('|j!ome r [Here a pause.] Now, you say your slaves are u\>- 
willing to go ; I will test your sincerity — will you pennit me io 
present the subject to them, with a promise on your part, that such 
of them, as choose to emigrate, may have the privilege of do- 
ing so ?^ 



24 



JAS. e. BIRNEY S LETTER. 



C. S. — ' Wliy, sir, you nic fov pii!ihin<r tliiiit^s forward a little 
too rapidi}' — there i* a time yon know for all things, as Solomon 
says— and great enterprb.e<< rwove slowly, especially at first. And 
as for your goin^r among my negroes to beat up for recruits, it 
would only serve to harass and perplex them — many of them 
have; wives and husbands and children belonging to other planta- 
tions, it would make such of ihem as would not go, uneasy and 
restless, and most likely create a hubbub among the neighbors — 
it would be cruel to separate husband and wife — parents and 
children. This, every one would feel.' 

A. — 'Then, if I understand you, this whole matter, so far as 
you are concerned in it, is mere trickery — and all your protesta- 
tions in favor of emancipation — if a home could be found for the 
slaves — wind, and nothing else.' 

C. S. — 'Not quite so fast, Mr. Agent — you know very well, 
it would not do to send out emigrants too rapidly. Suppo&e, 
now, that all the religious })eoplc of the South Avere to send out 
their slaves at once — cannot any one, with half an eye, per- 
ceive, that it would break up the colony .'" 

A. — ■'■ What you say might, in the case you have su)»posed, be 
verified — but it is a dejjarture from the question with which wo 
.>et out. I did not ask the reason why all the religious people 
of the South do not send out their slaves, — but why you do not ? 
Whatever might be the result, should all the religiotis slavehold- 
ers send out their slaves at once — your ten, fifteen, or twenty, 
will not endanger the saf(!ty t.f the colony, especially if they be 
not sent away empty.' 

C. S. " The truth is, we cannot make such a great change 
in ©ur domestic arrangements, as you would require, all in a mo- 
ineji*. A little while fience, the colony will be better prepared to 
receive then), — then they can be sent. Meantime, they may Ic 
sonjewhat prepare*! by education fvir the change from slavery to 
freedom."' 

A. ' In reply, I must say, if 7io one can do withotit his slaves, 
^loio, — and all act upon this piiuciple, the colony will scarcely e\t.'r 
be enlarged ; Ibr the iVee people of color have almost ceased to 
emigrate to it. So, that your objection to the present inca{)acity 
nfthe colony for receiving large Jiccessions, may, by the wry 
cnin"se y<iu are pursuing, be always siistainable. But, again — 
jue you really and earnestly engaged in educating yours for fii- 
I'ire ef)iaiicij>ati.)n ami domiciliation in Liberia- — faking off j'roni 
their daily labor of twelve^ thirteen^ or fourteen hours, some two or 
three to teach tlierti even the elements of learning. I fear you 
are trying to deceive yours«'lf in this matter. And do you at- 
tempt to instruct thetn in the religion of the bible, whilst forcibly 
withholding from them the fruits of their daily toil — whilst you 
are doing, what scarcely a ]»age of that l)ook leaves imcondemn- 



JAS. G. BIRNEY'S LETTER. 



S)i 



ed, and by which \\iey try your (jhiiractfM- nio.-t closely, because 
they have the depi.'est iiiteres! here ? lia-; it never occurred to 
you, bow vain and ineflectual i^ this attempt made by yov, or any 
:>iie in your situation ? And how great is the absurdity to odu- 
::ate in bonds those who are intended to be free 7 Beside all this, 
— your laws forbid the instruction of slaves, and they are becoiw- 
ng, every year, more rigorous. In all the South there is not, to 
.'tiy knowledge, either day-school or Sunday-school for slavo.- 
V(3!j are a law-abiding man, too — you will not violate the lau' 
riajulestinely ; how, then, tell jne, are you preparing your slaves 
for this importaJit chaiige ? ' 

(J. S. ' Why, really, Sir, wiicn I co:ne to look the thing right 
lit Uic face, I cannot alHrm that much is doing in this way. But, 
ih^ long and the short of the whole niHiter is, we cannot get 
t!';:!g in the South without slaves — and would you have us, by 
rtjmoving ourselves, give it up to the undisf/Uted dominion of 
Btiiifi! ? Under such circumslunces I (lauMot believe that slavery, 
miid and mitigated as it ever oiight lo be, is so \evy wrong as it 
might appear in the abstract.'' 

v. — ' It is not difficult to furnish a full answer to this defence. 
!{' oppressing the weak, and wresting from them the fruits of 
their toil be shivery, it tnu^t ever be wrong, allowing the word of 
God to be the test. No device oi' men — eittier as individuals or 
nations ; — no surrounding of then»sclves with circumstances, how- 
ever |.»eculiar they may be — even as peculiar as those now exist- 
uig in the South, — can chancre the nature of truth, render the 
word of God a nullity, and obliterate the great obligation of man 
' to do unto others as he would they should do unto him.' And 
if the South cannot be held, even niter the sort in which she now 
is, under the dominion of the Truth, without a continual trespass 
against God's law, it i.< dread j>roaf that God does not intend to 
h^jld it — and that he is giving it up to a strong delusion for its 
overthrow. — In concl.ision, to tolerate slavery, because it is mild 
and initigaled, is in complete analogy with a defence of ourselves 
against the charge of injustice and oppression, by jileading that 
wc are not as iniquitous and tyrannical as we niii^ht be.'' 

C. S. — But, ;is you have mentioned the Bible — there were ser- 
\anrs — slaves, as I understand it, among God's own peoj>le. 
Vbraham was a slav.> hold«'r, and the Israelites — if not command- 
ed, were j)ernfittod by God himscit', lo hold slaves. Now does 
not this jM-ovo, <*onfln.:ivtdy, that in the mere essence of slavery, 
in the i'orccjl and i;i voluntary subjection ol' one man to the power 
and caprice of another, ihere cannot, ^y^'r se, be any thing sinful 
or wrong ? 

A.-—* It is very true, that Abraham had j^ervants — a large num- 
[)et of them, He was a princes and one not of very grnall di- 
nicnsiona for those times. Hi« f/ws— as you will have them to 

n 



26 JAi5. G birney's letter. 

he — went out with him to battle, and constituted, exclusively, the 
army with which he routed lour kings. Their interests were so 
ilosely connected with his, that he hud no doubt of their fidelity 
Would you and your neighbors take out your slaves, in compa- 
nies and regiments — by themselves — armed cap-a-pie — to resist 
a strong invading foe, v '^o had inscribed upon his batmers 'liber- 
ty to the captive — freedom to the slave.'" Or would not your 
first apprehension rather be, that they would make common 
cause with the invadei.., arjd raise the fierce shout of the oppress- 
ed determined to be free, 'give me liberty or give me death'.'' 
But if these servants [subjects] of Abraham were — according to 
your translation, — slaves, so were also the courtiers of King Saul, 
[for they are called 'servants'] and the faithful little army of four 
hundred men, who adhered to David through all his persecutions 
by Saul — part of whom he employed in the delicate igency of 
negotiating a marriage between himself and the act omplishe(' 
Abigail. Further, if God saw j)roper to commute the punish 
ment of death, to which, /or their sins, he had condemned the 
Canaanites and some of the neighboring nations, for a mild and 
gentle slavery — and to appoint the Israelites, in the latter as well 
as in the former case his executioners, — they [the Israelites] are 
equally guiltless in both.' 

Again — the Israelites were commanded to exterminate the 
Canaanites, — and they did destroy great numbers of them : — Do 
nien go about nowadays, killing their neighbors, and plead in jus- 
tification or excuse the carnage of the Canaanites! Or is poly- 
gamy contended for, at the })resent time, because Abraham, Ja- 
cob and David were polygamists .'' Thus, Sir, you perceive that, 
when applied to cases complecely analogical, your reasoning leads 
to conclusions against which every well oniered mind must revolt. 
Besides, when we come to examine, a little more closely, the in- 
stance cited by you of Canaanitish bondage — it will be found 
to differ very widely in some of its most important features, from 
negro-slavery as it is seen i«:tiiis country. God specially directed 
the Israelites to hold in gentle st-. . itude, as a merciful commuta- 
tion of punishment, — nations, or j)arts of nations, who, /or their 
tfiiquities, had been expresslv condemned to utter extermination. 
To the people of this country he has given no direction to holil 
their African brethren, [who. so far as we know, are not con- 
demned to destruction] in a bondage so rigorous, so merciless, 
that, whilst it wastes and destroys the body, it tramples under 
foot every energy and kills every hope of the soul.' — I Avill not 
say, that the whole of the above nrgimient, thrown, for conven- 
ience, into the form oif a dialogue, was ])resented on any single 
oceasion during my agency in the South-west, But, it does 
exhibit a fair sample of the reasoning by which christian slave- 
holders quiot their coiiir.ciences, and satisfy themselves that sla- 



JAS. G. birney's letter. 27 

very is right, in their peculiar ciraimstances. How far it indicates 
the advance of correct sentiments on the subject of slavery 
among slaveholders — and to \vhat extent their excuses and sub- 
terfuges are upheld by colonization principles, as they are actualhj 
addressed to the comunmity, I shall leave for others to determine 

Injlucncc of Colonization on (he Frt-c People of Color. 

2. — I now propose, in the second place, to speak of the in- 
fluence of the spirit of colonization upon the free people of color. 
It will !)e admitted, I think, by every one acquainted with its 
IfiNtory, that it originated in feelings of kindness toward the 
colored f)eople, as well as in prospects of future o-ood to the 
whites. So long ago as 1777, Mr. Jefferson proposed to the 
legislature of Virginia, that all the oli'spring of slaves, born after 
that time, should be free at their birth — brought up at public ex- 
pense — educated, according to their geniuses, to the arts, sciences, 
()!• tillage — and furnished with every convenience for emigration 
to such a place as mi,Qlit be provided for them. Mr. Jefferson was 
but a little distance in the rear of the abolitionists of the present 
day — his scheme embracing an ii);)mediate abrogation of slavery, 
except in reference to the slaves then in being ; and leaving emi- 
gration — as it would seem i-ight it should be — entirely to the fu- 
ture option of the colored man. It did not wring from the weak 
their ' consent ' to removal, by jiresenting the alternative of 
hopeless slavery on the one hand, and banishment from their na- 
tive land on the other — but left them free, to choose whether they 
would remain here as freemen, or migrate, in the same charac- 
ter, to another home that would ])lease them better. This plan, 
taken in connexion with Mr. Jefferson's sentiments expressed, 
elsewhere, on the subject of slavery, leaves no doubt, that the 
primordia of colonization, originated in charitable feelings to- 
wards those who were suffering before his eyes; for, whatever 
may have been Mr. Jefferson's sentiments on other subjects — 
wherever human liberty, or national justice was restrained, he 
was the friend and advocate of all from whom it was withheld — 
he they white or red or black. 

Nor will I attribute to the excellent Dr. Finley, in whose mind 
the whole scheme of colonization first attained its full develope- 
ment, any other sentiments, how much soever they may have 
been mingled with indefensible error and prejudice — than those 
of the most charitable kind toward the free colored class, when, 
in a letter to a friend he says — ' The longer I live to see the 
wretchedness of men, the more I admire the virtue of those who 
devise, and with patience labor to execute plans for the relief of 
the wretched. On this subject, the state of the free blacks has 
very much occupie ^ my mind. Their number increases greatly 



28 JAt;. G. birm-y's letter. 

ant! their wretcheduess, too, as appears to iiic. Every thing 
♦'onnectcd with their condition, inchiding their color, is against 
them ; nor is there much prospect, that their state can be greatly 
meliorated whilst they continue among us. Could not the rich 
:ind benevolent devise means to form a colony on some part of 
the coast of Africa, similar to the one at Sierra Leone, which 
might gradually induce many free blacks to go and settle— devis- 
ing for them means of getting there,, and of protection and su|h 
port till they were established, &c. &c.'r 

With Dr. Finley, the object was one of a very simple and un- 
mixed character; one to which no reasonable objection could be 
started, an^l which, I am inclined to think, would, if confined 
<triclly t>. its proper limits, answer better than the present more 
H\ten<led schejne, for building up a Christian colony, and for cir- 
ilizing and ckritilianizing Africa. But in it we see no jireteii- 
-^ioM to its being the practicable, the only practicable, plan of re- 
lievino- our country from slavery. 

Dr. Finley, doubtless, intended, by his scheme, the permanent 
benefit and exaltation of the whole class of free colored people. 
If so, he was led into the error into which, [ think he fell, b) 
contemplating, with ijreat intensity of feeling, nothing but the 
down-trodden state of th;it people atnong us — throwing altogether 
f)iu of the range of his vision the causes wliich produced it, and 
forgptting the energy of those great princi])les, asserted first 
It} this nation, and even yet received by a great majority of 
ir as undeniahle and self-evidf.ni , and which might still br 
plnrked from their drowning state, for its fuller melioration 
and correction liere. He supposed, it was easier to remove 
from the ooimtry those who were the subjects of this de- 
gr.-'.dation, than to successfully combat and overthrow the i)reju- 
dices and false principles which produced it. He fell into a sim- 
ilar !uistake with those, who think, that slavery can be extermina- 
ted, by transporting to another country, such of the slaves as may 
be liberated among us, without having first given the death-blou 
to slavery, ilself I Jie producing pi'inciple, — and forgetting, that the 
few who would l)e emancipated, under such circumstantres, 
would be only the superfluity occasioned by the generative jmwer 
Of' the princij)le, and their abstraction but lopping oflT the dead 
.uid unsightly branches of the Upas, and giving to it more come- 
liuf'ss and vigor. 

Had lie been in Turkey, and seen some thousands of christ- 
ians in the same condition as that occupied by the free colored 
})eop!e in the United States, rearing their families under all the 
op})ressions of that government as they are exercised upon those*^ 
who are even nominally christians, it would have been an act of 
benevolence, to persuade them to remove — albeit, to a wild and 
unsettled coast, — and, of still greater benevolence, to have pro- 



JAS. G. BIRNEY's LETtER. ^9 

vided the means for their transportation. Why? because, neither 
the government of Turkey, nor the vioral structure of Turkish 
society contains in it any principle acknowledged by all to be 'un- 
deniable,' ' self-evident,' — which could be held uj) and ui^^d and 
traced in its consetjuencer^, before the people and those in power, 
of sutiicient efficacy to coiideimi their practice. They are, both, 
constituted upon the principle, that it is right to persecute a 
'christian dog' — to kick him, spit upon, deny him all legal privi- 
leges, and if he give any, the slij^htest ]>rovocation, to bowstring 
him. Under such circumstances — where neither the Government 
nor public sentiment acknowledge any principle sanitary and 
corrective of o])pression, — efforts tending to any other object than 
the removal of the opj)ressed from the scene of their sufferings, 
would justly be deemed enthusiastic and absurd. 

But how widely different is the case here! Does the advocate 
of slavery assert, that it is right to oppress a fellow-creature, be- 
i*ause God has given him a complexion unlike what he has be- 
birowed upon us ? — to subject him to all the weight of the law, 
whilst there is wrested from him all its poiver for his protection? 
Does the slaveholder say, it is right that slaver}% with all its soul- 
killing enormities, as well as with its lesser evils, should be con- 
tinued ? To uieet this, with what powerful armor has God 
clothed the American patriot and christian ! Shall he consent to 
extinguish slavery, by removing its redundancy? — a process that 
may be carried on for a hundred years, and, then, leave our 
' last state worse than the first.' Or to compass sea and land, 
that he may find some hole or corner for the thrusting away 
of the free colored man, sad, sick at heart, by reason of oppress- 
ion ? — that the slaveholder may repose in all the voluptuousness 
of the most undisturbed quiet.'' Or shall he not rather raise the 
slaveholder's earth-directed vision to the clear arch of the skj', 
and bid him there read words that are eternal in the Heavens, 
' whatsoever ye woidd that men should do unto you, do you even so 
unto them,' with its noble conuiientary ' all men are created equal, 
and have rights that arc inalienable, to life, liberty and the pursuit 
of happiness!' Shall he not rely uy)on the salutary operation of 
great principles sanctioned by God, and declared by man to be 
' undeniable :' that arc of sufficient efficacy, wherever they are 
ably and honestly urged, tor the reformation of every unjust and 
pernicious usage in the land- rather thati upon some poor shift, 
sotne conscience-calming expedient for the present exigency, 
whilst future exigencies — going into eternity, it may be — to which 
it i.-i totally inadequate, are left entirely unprovided for. 

The error of Dr. Finley, and of those who thought with him, 

is to be found in their attempt to convey away the bitter waters, 

whilst they left in full flow the fountain that was continually re- 

Qevving them j — in their essaying to remove the free colored 

3* 



30 jAri. G. wrney's letteh. 

people from the influenf;e of a fal^e and destructive principle, 
whilst the principle itself wa.s biill ];ermilted to exist, vigorously, 
'ijrodiicing and reproducing its iK'.lcful cflccts — instead of meeting 
it at its very origin and slopping it tlicrr. The wromi; praclicc of 
oppression — the unjust denial to the free colored class of the 
ciiaritable conduct of a rciincd and christian people, should have 
iicen boldly met by the right prhiciplcs ot' men's equality, and 
fheir duty to each other as social beings. 

But it was not long before the benevolent object of Dr. Finley 
was greatly perverted, and the benefit that was intended ior the 
free c-oiored man — Jiis ihief aim v. as made secondary to \ho poli- 
cy of sending him away.* At Jirst, the aj)parent benevolence of 
ihe enterprise moved the spirits oi' some of the free people of 
color, anil not a few of them uere preparing, df)ubtless, as true 
heralds of the cross, to bless benightf^d Africa. Emigrants offer- 
ed themselves in greater numbers than the means of the Society 
were competent to send out. Sf^eing this, the philanthropy of 
the entcrjsrising was throvi ii somewhat in the back-ground, or 
bo(;anie, with many, merely auxiliary to the policy of sending out 
of the country the whole of the free colored j>opulation. In this 
wa}', it was recommended to the most determined slaveholder. 
He was reminded, that the free colored man was a ' luiisanee' to 
the white — a source, almost the only one, of disquiet and dis(-ot»- 
lent to the slave, — that he was boundlessly degraderi and vicious, 
polluted and polluting all around him, — and, that the fact of his 

* I nm hero reiniiided of tlu; vei y oieat resemljlance this case beHi:^, in 
its most prominent fcatiiros, to tlint of the Indians, wliu have been movei! 
upon, in nearly the same ninnner, to " conr^ent " to leave their lands within 
the limits of pevoial of the stafe.-:. To these unhappy people — imhappy be- 
•"aitBe cruelly treated bv tlus^e upon v.hom thev, as children, east themselves 
for protection — it was urgt-fl, that the encroaehments and lawlessness of the 
whites would render their situation, whilst ihey remained near them, too 
grievous to be borne — that, they would Ise far happi(>r when separated tV(nn 
u-, in a coiuitry entirely under tl)<Mr own control- — and, in eonclu/^ion, dsai 
fh^s advice was dictated by hnmanity — hi) a pure regard for their wel- 
fare. What was the Indian's repdy ^ '' 'Tis true, our situation, owinj^ to 
die causes ymi have mentioned, is bad enough, but is it not mad« so by yom- 
negligence of right, and disregard of the most solemn stipulations'? V.'ill 
you, by your injustice — your fraud — your force, create the necessity whicli 
makes it expedient for us to remove to a wilderness, and then, by persuad- 
ing U-; to fly from its destructive inthiencc, claim the praises of philanlhr( - 
py \\m\ humanity ? Strange reasoning this I — since it leads to the conclu- 
sion, that the greater your friends, the louder will be the plaudits you will 
gather for good will to the \\oo\ Indian- Where are your treaties, by 
which you are bound solemnly before (jlod and ttie world to conduct yoiu- 
selves towards us,, at leart, with justice 1 (io, tell your countrymen to re- 
Btniin their avarice, withhold their force, repress "theii- injustice — purify 
.Hud elevate their morals, and not apjjroach us with the disgusting skeletcu 
nf policy decked out with the tawdry vestments of humanity. Away with 
your humanity that is ba?ed on tcltishnes?, we'll none of it." 



31 

oeini^ so, might always remain as strong as it th&n was for sus- 
tuiiiing such an ar^ment, it was asserted witli ceaseless repeti- 
tion, tiiat in this degraded state he must continue as long as he 
resided among us — that here his condition was irretrievable, hope- 
less; in line, it was an ' ordinalion of Providence.' All this \v;is 
surmounted by picmi'i to our humanity. And the free colored 
man, for his encouragement was told, that the whole field of ho^i- 
onible ambition lay open before him; that he might, in the lan<l 
of his fathers, etigage in the high ofljces of legislation — in the 
solemn ministrations of the altar — and in laying the foundations 
of a great j)eople, a mighty christian nation, before whose feet the 
counties? idolatries of Africa's unnuml)ered tribes would fall in 
ruin^ to the ground. 

AH this sounds well, — but it will be found, on examination, to 
contain principles at variance with each other and mutually de- 
Htruclive. Let us suppose these tnotives to be addressed to an in- 
telligent free man of color, would not his train of reflections, most 
proliably, be somewhat of this kind.'* ' I belong, then, to a class, 
which the white man declares to be a nuisance. If this l)e ti'ue, 
what has produced it.^ His own conduct. What has this been, 
K»ut a course of systematic neglect, contemi)t, abuse — withholding 
from us every franchise and immunity of the government whose 
tendency, he says, is to elevate and ennoble those who exercise 
them.'* We were thrown out from the charnel-house of slavery , 
ignorant, unconscious of the want, unable to appreciate the ad- 
vantages of education — our families cut off from all associates, 
except the degraded slave, or the polluted and polluting white: — 
and what has been done for us.^ Whilst the white man has es- 
tablished, at great expense of life and treasure, schools for the 
Caffre and the Hottentots — for the Indian of Ceylon and the 
negro of New-Zealand; whilst he has his missionary, on the one 
hand, j>lying with untiring step his course to the summit of the 
Rocky Mountains, and, on the other, scaling the wall of China 
to dechire that Truth which makes men 'free indeed' — what hfis 
he done, what is he doing, for the class, whose ignorance and 
HiTor must be daily witnessed, and whose wants must be fully 
known? Nothing, nothing, nothing. What confidence, then, 
can I properly repose in a benevolence acthig on\y afar off, whilst 
It neglects so much at hand — in that charity which will despatch 
;i band of missi(Miaries to Africa, whilst it will not supply one to 
her sons Aere, though fainting — perishing for the bread of life? 
In what manner am I to estimate the sincerity of men — aye, of 
chrisliaK men too — who, in one breath, tell me ; their prejudices 
against us whilst here, are insurmountable, but, that they vanish, 
when we are nnnoved from them some six or seven thousand 
miles — that whilst we remain here, religion itself is incompetent 
to destroy them, — but that when it acts across an ocean it pos- 



52 jASk G. birney's letter. 

sesses wondrous, overmastering potency, for their extirpation , 
who say, that herCy under the restraints of .wholesome laws, with 
the presence of the whites to check and control us, we are utterly 
unfit, because of our moral and intellectual depravity, for the en 
joyment of the lowest privilege — ^yet, forsooth, would fling us, 
with all our stupidity, our inexperience, our vileness and infamy, 
in one unbroken and reeking mass, upon a distant land, — un- 
(;heckod by wholesome laws or animated by virtuous example — to 
<lo what? To carry on a system of piracy? — of robbery? — or to 
establish a factory for conducting a commerce in the blood and 
gore and groans o^our fellow-men? No; it is not in these occu- 
pations we live to be 'employed, and for which it would seem, our 
henef actors being ivitnesses, we are well fitted, but it is — O, won- 
derful adaptation ! to christianize and civilize one hundred mil- 
lions of heathen ! ! 

Again — if we are a nuisance now, by what necessity are we al- 
ways to remain so? Are we incapable of improvement — impene- 
trable CO those great truths by which man's mind is enlightened — 
bis heart purified and he made a freeman indeed? This cannot 
be asserted without impugning God's word. What, then, will 
make up this everlasting pressure? Prejudice, prejudice — so pro- 
claimed ' before all Israel, and before the Sun !' We have none 
against the whites. Deeply injured, neglected, vilified as we 
have been, we are wilHng to pass it all by, take a lowly station, 
and cheerfully acknowledge their superiority. But how is this 
temper reciprocated? By still accumulating abuse. They say 
of us, as a class, we are diseased, sick, ready to die, and yet, 
b}^ emigration to Liberia, would they suck from us the most 
healthful blood that circulates in our system. They declare by 
their language — by their laws, an inflexible pur])ose to grant no 
mitigation of our ills, unless we respond harmoniously to their 
policy in sending us away. How then can we in a matter so im- 
])ortant to us — so far from our homes — so irremediable, if it fail, 
trust to those whose rigor of temper no concession can soften — 
whose selfish policy is the substance, our good but the accident? 

But further, why arc we spoken of as a class? why do they 
throw together the good, the bad, the inditferent, and make of 
them one mass, baptized by the name of mmanc;?, when they deal 
not thus with other men? I do not perceive that men of black 
Iiair and oi" light colori.d hair — of black eyes and blue eyes — of 
low stature and high stature, are s})oken of in classes, to which 
any moral or intellectual designation is given. No: each one is 
judged by his own merits — nor are they mixed up with the vices 
and demerits of others to make a foul and unsightly lump. This 
common-sense and common-charity measure of judgment and 
treatment is all that I have a right to ask, it is all I desire, and 
justice cannot withhold it. 



33 

But, more tliHii all, we are especially obnoxious to the slave- 
liolder. Here is the jspring of all this preparation. My fellow- 
iiKiii is ill bondage — the sight of a freeman of his own eolor re- 
leased from chains will make the slave more restless under his ; 
and the slaveholder, with his hand on the throat of my father, my 
brother, njy sister or my mother, must by all means, be ke|)t tran- 
(piil and undisturbed — liis property in man must be untouched, 
whilst Ae is robbing him of the use of the limbs and muscles that 
God gave, and of the daily products of their toil. And this is the 
sum and substance of this mighty charity! We are to be driven 
from the country as a nuisance — we are to be persuaded, by un 
ceasing reiteration, that such we are now, and so we must remain, 
to all, — but especially to the unrelenting slaveholder.' 'O! my 
•5oid come not. thou into their secret — unto their assembly mine 
honor be not thou united.' 

I will not undertake to decide upon the justness of all these r<^- 
flections. I only say, they are such as may very naturally be ex- 
pHcted to arise in the mind of an intelligent free colored person, 
on the presentation of colonizing motives for removal. That 
they are, however, nearly allied to such as are really enter- 
tained by him, we may be led to presume, from the result of col= 
onizing etlbrts upon the class to which he belongs. In the 
commencement of the scheme, — whilst it was recommended chiefly 
a? one of benevolence to the colored freeman and native African, 
it engaged in som'? small degree, the attention of the colored peo- 
ple in the northern states. But so soon as it was urged as a 
stroke o^ policy, — and as such, (accompanied with great vilifica- 
tion of the colored people,) pressed upon the Southern slaveholder, 
the whole plan was broken up, so far as they were concerned. 
Benevolent persons, too, among the whites, entertaining senri- 
ments of kindness toward the blacks ; many of whom had sup- 
ported colonization on the ground that it bid fair to confer u])nn 
ihem great benefits, so soon as they discovered, that benevolence 
to the oppressed was practically, but the banner on the outer wnl!, 
whilst the great citadel of the ])lan was in the poliaj of removing 
from amongst us a neglected clas« of men, whom we had branded, 
' nuisance,' and who were viewed as a hindrance to the poacei'ul 
l>erpetuation of slavery, they not only revolted from it, but so 
easy a task did they find it, to expose the repugnancy of the prin- 
ciples upon which it was conducted, that they were enabled, very 
soon, to produce an opinion concurrent with their own, amongst 
all the colored population of the North. 

The free colored people of the South, and of the South-west, 
more particularly of the latter, have, at no time, manifested much 
interest in the enterprise. In Cincinnati, there is, among this 
class, an utter hostility to Liberian Emigration. Their temper on 
the subject of removal; at all, was, doubtless, greatly exacerbated, 



34 JA.S. G. BIRNEY S LETTER. 

l)y the severe and persecuting spirit, exhibited toward th<;ni ni 
1828 — when a strong ineasurc was resorted to with the view of 
compelling them to reujove. 

In Louisville, notwithstanding the presence of about one hun 
ilied emigrants, who were detained there, for several days, pre- 
viously to descending the river to take passage in the Ajax — and 
a very forcible appeal, made at the same time by a highly gifted 
agent, in behalf of colonization, no effect seems to have been ])ro- 
duced u\}on the free colored people of that city. Not one of them, 
so far as I am informed, has, at any time, emigrated to Liberia, 
or signified a wish to do so. 

In New-Orleans, among the same class, if not opposition, ther^ 
is, I apprehend, a thorough indifference. Here, they cannot bt 
much short of ten thousand. Numbers of them know how to 
read find write, and there are not wanting, those who are edu- 
cated, intelligent and wealthy. Whilst presenting the claims of 
colonization to a very large assembly, that part of the gallery, ap- 
propriated for Sabbath services, to the blacks, was crowded with 
that description of peo]jle. I spoke of them as I felt — kindly: 
and of their condition, compassionately. To me it appeared a 
mjitter of no small importance to the cause of colonization that 
some on.igrants should, if possible, be obtained out of so large 
and influential a body as was constituted by the free colored class 
in New-Orleans. Still more important did I consider it, that 
some one or two, of the most intelligent and worthy among them, 
should be persuaded to go out to Liberia, that they might bring 
!)ack a true report of the condition and prospects of the colony, 
wliieh I Uh'n thought would I)e satisfactory to every one else, as 
well as to their brethren in the lower country. With this view, 
through the medium of the new.spapers, I gave notice to such of 
them as desired to go out, that their ])assage, with all necessary 
accotnmodations, woukl be furnished gratuitously. So little in- 
terest was excited in favor of the schense then, and within the 
two or three weeks, during which the whole of the emigrants by 
the Ajax weie delayed there, that only one free colored person 
(;ame to converse with me on the subject. He was irresolute at 
the first interview, and he never sought another. 

A reference to recent expeditions will satisfy any one who will 
make it, that the free colored peoj)le have almost entirely aban- 
doned the })toject. The whole nuniber of emigrants sent out in 
twenty-three expeditions was 2,06L Of these, there were slaves, 
613. Compare the proportion of these numbers with that shown 
by subsequent ex{>editions — say by the four of the year 1833. 
Tile first [brig Anjerican] from Philadelphia, said to have been 
a small one, (the exact number I have not by me the means of 
ascertaining) sailed in May. The emigrants in this instance 1 
set down as all free. 



JAS. G. birnby's letter. 35 

The Jupiter sailed from Norfolk \\'\\h fifty emigrants, /or/ ly- 
four of whom were slaves. The Ajax from New Orleans with 
one hundred and fifty, of whom at least one hundred and twenty 
were slaves. The Argus from Norfolk with fifly-one, thirty five 
of whom were slaves. The aggregate number by these exj)edi- 
tions may be fairly set down at two hundred and sixty , of vvhojn 
two hundred were slaves. 

'*' Such facts, sir, tend to demonstrate the practical operation ol' 
ihe principles on which colonization is recommended. How 
much soever they may be cherished by the sincere advocate of 
human liberty, in common with the slaveholder, it is in progress 
to full proof, that they have in them nothing attractive to that 
particular class of people for \\l)ose benefit the whole })lan was 
set on foot, and as to whom it may be considered as wholly in- 
efficient.r— To what extent the transymrtation of slaves, who are 
compelled to choose between exile and })erpetual bondage, is a 
departure from the original purpose of colonization, I do not pur- 
pose here to inquire — but proceed, 
8. To speak upon the 

Influence of Colonization on Africa. 

It is not my intention to discuss this part of the subject at great 
length, but to prove, as briefly as I can from facts, that the pros- 
pect of converting to Christianity and civihzing the heathen of 
Africa, by the direct instrumentality of the colony, is — if not 
wholly — in a great measure delusive. To the many who are led 
mainly by the consideration just mentioned, I trust it will not ap- 
pear unfriendly to the cause of religion itself, when I attempt to 
show that their efforts in this way have httle if any tendency to 
promote it. As no cause that is substantially a good one ever 
received solid support from an erroneous presentation of facts, 
or from false or unsound arguments, so neitlier will it elude det- 
riment by the su^jpression of opposing facts, or of a candid and 
manly examination of its claims. It is for the advancement of 
truth, that I pro[)ose to examine the soundness of the position 
taken by colonizationists, that the colony will he the great meajiz 
of Christianizins^ and civilizing Jlfrica. In one sense this is not 
denied : That the colony will continue to grow in numbers and 
importance, until it nny be considered as permanently establish- 
<m! ; th;it it will fiimish a fi)oting for missionaries and others, who 
may engage in this work of benevolence : that here in future 
:in,ies, as in many of our cities now, the religious will assemble to 
consult and organize associations for diffusing a knowledge of 
Christianity among the heathen, I shall not for a moment contro- 
vert. What I mean is, that the colony itself, as such — so far 
from aitling, by the fair influence of its religious character, in the 



S6 



JAS. G. BIRNEY's letter. 



Conversion of the natives who come within the s|)here of its fn> 
tiosi, will rathor operate agninst their conversion. This jxrsition 
will, a^; I think, he fully .supported, not only hy the history of ail 
other nominaUy Christian colonies in modern times, but by facts 
Jtlro.idy existing and ascertained, uoing to prove the unfavorable 
influence of the colony upon the surrounding tribes. 

The discovery of America was made by a man professedly 
and no doubt really a Christian. The country of his birth, and 
that under whose patronage his voyages were conducted, es- 
pecially the lattei", were eminently refined, brave and chivalrous. 
The colonies ])l;'.nted by Cohnnbus were made up of men who 
were nMUjinally Christions, and enterprising, nor is it dispute<l 
that there were among them individuals of decided and deep- 
toned piety. ISTore than this cannot be said of the adventurers to 
Liberia. — And as for the nahves, have any ever been fomul s<» 
vscll characterisfi to win the regards and conciliate the love of 
Mien, a.-^ those described by Columbus in a letter to the King and 
Queen of Spain, as "so affectionate, so tractable, and so ])eacc- 
alile, that I swear to your Highnesses, there is not a better race 
of men nor a better country in the world — they love their neigh- 
bors as themselves — their convei-sation is the sweetest and mild- 
c.>t in the world, and always acconij)anicd with a smile .'^" Can 
ihe imngination bring up before us circuuistances more iavorable 
than thor-c which were here realized by the coloni.^ts, for the ex- 
hibitioii of the Christian character } And where, after an experi- 
ment of i^OO years, arc all these |)eople t Civilized ? — Christian- 
ized ? Of thy Sonth Americans, there are miserable, abject retn- 
Hunts ; of the hlanda\s, there is scarcely a human being left, to 
testify to the Christian elVorts of this Christiim colony. 

Are we sending to Lihr ria better men — n^orc regardful of jus- 
ri-e and mercy — or more strongly animated by the Christian 
spirit, than the pilgrim fathers ot* New England ': Yet, w her(! 
are the aborigines of that coimtry t Are ihey Christianized ? 
No : tlic scon-lting sj)irit of colonial Christkmity has utterly con- 
;-;!mcd them. 

In his inlercoursc wiih tiie aborigines of this country, William 
T'onn, nsore fully tiian any other of the colonial jjroprietaries, e\- 
li!l>i!cd to their contemjth'.tion the lovely j)ortrait of the Christian 
n''i;:ori;!tor, movinif liijrh above the gross regif)n of subtlety and 
lirr.'ii, Notwifhsf.-.iidimj this grejit and attractive example of 
jiisiice ;iud maj.'rianimity, yrt tlo we fitul in the history of the 
;tborii*iiu's of Pcnns} h'ania, tlic same result an in all (he other 
i'!(!onies— they wcM-e either dt'stroy<'d, or in wreiched remnants, 
tiriven back faitlier and iarther into the wildf»rness. The great 
majority of the colony posr^essed but little of the spirit of Penn. 
Nor, indeed^ is it to be espectedj that adventiu'er!? to distant cottn- 
t!»e!«\ mf-rely ;//»;' she s^/c/- fif ffnin, (find of this df?scHption tb«? 



JAS. G. birney's letter. 37 

great body of colonists will always be,) where it is to be acquired 
by commerce with savaires, ionorant and unable to appreciate the 
value of their commodities, will fail — ^forgetful of principle and 
right — generally to seek those advantages in their traffic that 
superior intelligence can so easily secure to them — especially in 
the absence of a well regulated public sentiment, as in older 
countries, to brand such over-reaching with disgrace. Now, sir, 
if all these instances of colonization in modern tunes, undertaken 
under the most favorable circumstances, and by some of the most 
j)ious and distinguished men, have utterly miscarried in the work 
of Christianizing and civilizing the heathen, what can l.>e urged to 
encourage the expectation that the colony of Liberia, or any 
other nominally Christian colony, planteil on the coast of Africa, 
will be permanently beneficial to the aborigines of that continent ^ 

But I am encountered here with an exception to the theory es- 
tablished by these facts : — The European colonists differed in 
color from the natives of countries where they established them- 
selves ; whereas the negro colonist of this country goes to Africa 
with all the advantages of similar color and physical conforma- 
tion. I grant, that this circumstance did at one time appear to 
me entitled to considerable \veight ; but the testimony of Govern- 
or Pinney, united to other testimony of the same character, show- 
ing the relation of the colonists and the natives, has very much 
diminished its weight, and furnished, agreeably to my apprehen- 
sion, reasons for believing there are causes as completely re})ul- 
sive between the native African and the colonist from the United 
States, as any that can be found in color or form. This gentle- 
man, writing from Monrovia, in February last, says — " The na- 
tives are, as to wealth and intellectual cultivation, related to the 
colonists, as the negro of America is to the white man, and this 
fact, added to their mode of dress, which consists of nothing 
usually but a handkerchief around the loins, leads to the same 
distinction as exists in America between colors. A colonist of 
any dye, [and many of them there are of a darker hue "than the 
Vey or Dey, or Kroo or Bassa] would, if at all respectable, think 
himself degraded by marrying a native. The natives are, in fact, 
menials, (I mean those in town) and sorry am I to be obliged to 
«ay, that from my limited observation, it is evident, that as little 
effort is made by the colonists to elevate them as is usually made 
by the higher class in the United States to elevate the lower.' 

The Rev. Samuel Jones, a colored man, and a Baptist 
preacher, sent out by the Colonization Society ofGeorgetown, 
Ohio, on a visit of exploration to Liberia, speaking on the same 
subject, says — " I saw in all the schools but one or two natives — 
and none were present the two Sabbaths I preached in the co- 
lony. The natives generally fear the colonists, and they (the 
eolonists) say it is necessary that they should, that they may not 
4 



38 jAs. G, birney's letter. 

rise and destroy them. One man, a licensed exhorter of the 
Baptist denomination, Avent so far as to say the natives ought to 
be slaves, and he debated the subject with me quite warmly. 
In fact, the relation between the colonist and native is very 
similar to that between master and slave." "All the colon- 
ists who can afford it, have a native or two to do their work. 
The natives never go into the house, but always eat and sleep 
in the kitchen. When they go to the door to speak to the 
masters, they always take their hats off, as though they de- 
sired to be very submissive."* 

The Commercial Advertiser of New York, a newspaper 
warmly supporting the -cause of colonization, on the arrival 
of the schooner Edgar a few days since from Liberia, says ; 
" All the information we have from the colony, represents 
the pride, luxury and extravagance of those settlers who have 
been prosperous in trade there, as highly reprehensible. 
Almost every family has a number of natives employed as 
native servants, and even among the families of emancipated 
slaves who have been sent there, though themselves entirely 
dependent for their support, yet they are too lazy even to 
bring water; and declare themselves free, and employ natives 
as their servants.^'' 

The Rev. Mr. King of Tennessee, late agent of the Ten- 
nessee Colonization Society, who went out in the Ajax, in 
company with Mr. Jones mentioned above — toldrne, not long 
since, that the colony had produced so little effect upon the 
costume of the natives, that they were yet to be seen wander- 
ing and lounging in the street, in the state of almost nudity, 
described by Mr. Pinney. 

The same gentleman whilst in Liberia, became acquamted 
with the Reverend Mr. Caesar, an Episcopal clergyman, much 
respected. By him he was told, that although the last war 

* The constitution of the colony prohibits involuntary slavery — except 
foretime ; yet, what kind of a barrier doeri a paper prohibition oppose to 
a vitiated state of public sentiment ? Is it not a matter that sliould be 
deeply pondered by Christian slaveholders in our o\Tn country, how far their 
example may contribute to brin^ aboist and sanction the enslavement of the 
natives by the colonists "? Is it not probable that the edge of detestation 
of slavery would be somewhat dulled among them on their recollecting 
that their friends in the United States, looked upon by them, it may be, as 
eminent preachers and Christians, still no!t! iheir fellow men in bondiigc ' 
How many plausible pretexts might be found for lurning into a ccitton, or 
coifee, or sugar plantation, some lialf a doxeti or more of these nearly naked 
nomadic ladies and gentlemen, that they might be better fed and clothed 
than they could clothe and feed themselves — rinu have the additional benefit of 
now and ihen hearing the gospel preachec', to the salvation of their poulg ! 
How easily might they fill their mouths with arguments tl^»t were formerly 
deemed good for the African slave trade, and now for th^ domestic, slave 
trade; and for the coniinuanco of ^averv among us' 



JAs. G. birney's letter. 3^ 

(March, 1832) with the natives, in which there were many 
of them killed, was popular, and considered glorious for the 
colony, }et the ostensible cause of it was not the real cause ; 
— and that the latter was to bo found in the resentment of a 
keen and Hctive trader b}- the name of Thenipson, originat- 
ing in disapj)ointment at not receiving a due reciprocation of 
presents made by him with the purpose of advancing his 
traffick Avith the natives.* 

But, Sir, has it ever been known, that Commercial estab- 
lishments have proved to be sources of religious knowledge 
and improvement to the heathen, among whom they have 
been placed r The colony of Liberia is emphatically one of 
this character — there exists in it, according to all accounts, a 
rage for trade. Let us recur for a moment to the history of 
leligious efforts among our neighboring Indians. Who, 
amongst us, would ever think of encouraging a trading station, 
or company of petty shop-keepers, (such as could be induced 
to emigrate for gain) and upholding them, as the best means 
of diffusing a knowledge of Chriscianity among the Indians, 
as missionary stations ! ! I will venture to say, that among 
the greatest obstacles the true missionary has to encounter in 
recommending " Christ" to our aboriginal natives, is the in- 
fluence, direct and indirect, of such establishments. When 
we consider their object, we cannot be at a loss, for an instant, 
to arrive at this conclusion. It is to supply the wants of sav- 
age life, but more especially the peculiar vmnts of savage life. 

These peculiar v/ants are trinkets, baubles, beads, tobacco, 
ardent spirits, fire-arms, pouder and ball. It is the gratifica- 
tion of these wants that gives vitality, and their growth that 
gives encouragement to the trading stations. Now^, so lo*jg 
as these peculiar v. ants subsist, savageism must continue — so 
long as they grow^ it must also be growing more rude and 
untameable. So superficial is this truth, that no missionary 
station, so far as I am informed, has ever been supplied with 
any of the articles mentioned above, calculated to keep alive 
savage customs. What is the first work of the missionary ? 
Is it not to allure to peace, to stationary life and habits of set^ 
tied industry .'' If he succeed, he |)Uts an end, in proportion 
to his success, to the sale of arms, powder and ball, whether 
they be intended to kill ujen, or for hunting. If he inculcate 
abstinence from the use of ardent spirits, he is brought direct- 
ly in collision with the interest of the trader. Should he be 
blessed in his honest labors for the amelioration of savage life, 

♦ If this be the true account, there was, in the result, a singular retribu- 
tion ef Providence. — Thompson was the only colonist who was killed 
in the battle with the natives. 



40 JAS. G. filRNEY^S LETTER, 

it must be almost entirely, by the annihilation of the trader's 
occupation. It would seem strange then, that with experi- 
enced persons, there should, after twelve years disastrous 
trial, too, at Lil>eria, exist such pertinacity in insisting upon 
the practicability of uniting the trader and missionary — and, 
that there should still be indulged such bloated expectations 
of good to the heathen of Africa, from the instrumentality of 
men who go out [if preachers, so much the worse] with fire 
arms, powder and ball, and rum, in one hand, and the Bible 
in the other. 

The wants of the native African are limited to a little cot- 
ton cloth, trinkets, beads, baubles, tobacco, ardent spirit, 
powder, ball and fire-arms, Francis Devany, who became a 
resident of the colony in 1823, testified before a committee of 
Congress in 1830, that he had acquired property since his 
emigration to the amount of $20,000 — and that a Mr. Waring, 
(if we mistake not, a preacher,) had, as a commission mer- 
chant in Monrovia, sold in one year, goods to the amount of 
^70,000, Now, Sir, even upon the supposition that no other 
goods were sold to the natives, than the probable j^early 
amount vended by these two gentlemen, what awful havoc 
must have been made of the souls and bodies of these poor 
savages ! And when we consider, too, that in this " dreadful 
trade " are engaged ])rofessed ministers of Jesus Christ, who 
from their sacred calling must, of course, be most relied upon 
for preaching the gospel to them, and exhibiting, in their own 
conduct, the beauty of the Christian character, it becomes a 
question of tremendous import to all American Christians, 
" Can I, in conscience, give my support and encouragement 
to an establishment, whose ways are present destruction to 
the heathen, in the hope that peradventure, it may become 
hereafter the means of blessing and salvation to them .'"' 

But the pernicious consequences of such a state of things, 
are by no means confined to the natives. The " Commer- 
cial Advertiser," tells us that " those who have been most 
prosperous in trade " (in supplying the country with the in- 
struments of death) "arc proud, extravagant and luxurious." 
They have reaped their reward, it may be, at the expense of 
the little pittances of the unwary emigrants, who by their rum 
and alluring trumpery, have been ma Je and kept poor. As to 
the condition of the poor, however they may have become 
so, another quotation from Mr. Jones' journal shall inform 
us, " On the fourth day, Mr. King [Agent of the Tennessee 
Colonization Society] suggested that we ought now to visit 
the poor. We accordingly did so — and of all misery and 
poverty, and all repining that my imagination had ever con- 
ceived, it had never reached what my eyes now saw, and my 



IAS. G. BIRNEY S LETTER, 41 

ears heard. Hundreds of poor creatures, squalid, ragged, 
hungry, without employment — some actually starving to 
death, and all praying most fervently that they might get home 
to America once more. Even the emancipated slave craved 
the boon of returning again to bondage, that he might once 
more have the pains of hunger 8atislie<l. There are hun- 
dreds there who say they would rather come back and be slave-? 
than stay in Liberia. They would sit down and tell us their 
tale of suffering and of sorrow, with such a dejected and wo- 
begone aspect, that it would ahiios!; break our hearts. They 
would weep as they would talk of their sorrows here, and 
their joys in America — and we mingled our tears freely with 
theirs. This part of the population included, as near as we 
could judge, two thirds of the inhabitants of Monrovia." 

Mr. Jones had been a slave in Kentucky ; — in a subsequent 
part of his journal he sa3"s, " Sooner than carry my wife and 
two sons there to settle, with only what property I now pos- 
sess, T would go back into slavery as a far better lot."* 

=^ There are among us, I know, many men of distinguished piety and 
talents — especially in the free states — who have long since lost all coofi- 
denre in cnlonization, a? an effectnal means of exterminating slavery, or even 
in its persuasive inlluence over the free colored people to remove themselves 
to Africa — who yet adhere to it as a missioiutry enterprise. Such, I en- 
treat to consider'attentively, impartially — with prayer — the view, imperfect 
as it may be, that I liave attempted to give of this part of the subject. In 
the same spirit let them ask themselves — " Is the direction of this matter 
(lecidedly of a religious character ?" — " Has the action of the colony upon 
the natives heretofore been such as God uses to bless in the conversion of 
the heathen V — " Is there any reasonable ground to believe that it will be 
such in future 1" — " Is there not some room to fear that many of the col- 
onists who have left this country with a highly reputable religious charac- 
ter, have fallen back to a baser standard '?" If an affirmative answer to 
the three firjit questions should barely preponderate, and there is hope of 
things still belter to come, ought it not to be a matter of the most earnest 
consideration, how far even this will justify men of deep-toned piety, whose 
praise is in all the churches, and whose intellectual labors reach the re- 
motest frontier hamlets — in sustaining, by their name.s and their efforts, a 
scheme that puts al ease the conscience of the slaveholder — that has a ten- 
dency, ^o far as it succeeds, by removing the greatest impediment to the 
peaceful enjoyment of slave property, to perpetuate the system of slavery — 
a system, that is breaking up the scliouls and collegos of the South — dis- 
solving its churches, impoverishing the countiy: giving, with each day of 
its protracted existence, additional strength to every excuse that is now 
made for its continuance, and that nmst in a few years at most, if left un- 
disturbed, break up the South with overwhf lining destruction 1 As long 
as such gentlemen, approving, douijtlcfcs most honestly, this supposed 
feature in colonization — stop forward, axmX for this cause publicly recom- 
mend the whole scheme — they are, witli triumph, whatever they may in- 
tend, set down by the determined slaveholder of the South as full blood- 
ed colonizationists endorsing his opinions, that slavery now, under existing 
•ircumstauc€s, is right — that emancipation in the country is out of the 
4* 



42 jAS. G. birney's letter. 

Is it not very probable, that those persons who have looked, 
with high expectations, to the scheme of colonization, as the 
best that could be devised for the annihilation of the African 
slave trade, are doomed to suffer utter disappointment ? This 
trade has been carried on since the establishment of the colo- 
nies at Sierra Leone and Liberia, as vigorously- as it ever had 
been driven at any former period ; and notwithstanding, it is 
regarded by the laws of the States of Europe, as well as of 
our own country, piracy, and is puniehable with death, and 
many of the public ships of these ])ov,ers, particularly of 
England, are continually cruising in the African seas, inquest 
of slavers, yet, Sir, is this traffic in human flesh carried on 
throughout the whole coast, and to no contemptible extent, 
even in their own colony established for its suppression. This 
fact was fully disclosed, by an inquiry instituted notlongsrnce 
in the British Parliament. Nor am I, by any means, sure 
that the result of the same inquirj' does not, on very strong 
grounds, implicate some of our own colonists of either directly 
participating in the trade, or else conniving at its existence in 
the neighborhood of INIonrovia. May we not be jirepared 
to expect this, from the evidence already before the })ublic of 
the entire deterioration of the Christian character, in such of 
the colonists as have been most successful in trade, and their 
utter neglect thus far, of the natives? If men professing 
Christianity will, at this day, consent to enrich themselves by 
the sale of such vast quantiUes of ardent spirits as have been 
sold to the natives by church-members in Liberia, their ?iext 
movement will be to sell to the slaver his sup])lies ; — suspect- 
ing him to be such, yet asking no questions, for who questions 
a customer with a full purse ? The next step will be to assume 
a secret agency for him ; the next, a direct participation in 
the profits connected with the agency ; and lastly, when such 
men by their wealth and influence have moulded public opin- 
ion to sustain their views, and the colony is left to its own 
government ; there v.ill, in all ]n*obability, be a shameless and 
open prosecution of the trade in their fellow beings.* 

(luestion ; that rigorous laws, made to wring from the free colored people 
their " consent " to emigrate, are not to be condemned, bat rather to be 
winked at. The great mass of men stop not to in(|nire wiiat nice shades 
of difference there may be among colonizationsts, but who are colonizalion- 
ists bj' public profession. This ascertained, they are set down as favoring 
all its gloomv consequences; as the advocate of all its appalling influence; 
as certainly as the moderate drinkers of their one or two daily glasses of 
brandy eacli, are written down by the opposers of temperance, on their side. 
* John Dean Lake, a witness in the inquiry above alluded to, residing at 
Sierra Leone, says: " Deponent had a mercantile transaction with a Mr. 
Hilary Teague, an American subject residing at Liberia. This Mr. 
Teague is in the habit of purchasing goods in this colony, which he takes 



JASi G. BIRNEV^S LETTER. 4S 

It seems to me that any hope, built upon the establishment 
of colonies on the African coast, for the suppression of the 
slave trade, Avill prove altogether fallacious. It is in opposi- 
tion, wholly, to commercial experience. There is no com- 
modity — if human flesh may be so called — which avarice will 
not supply to a market kept open for its sale. She laughs at 
revenue-laws — at the penalties for smuggling — derides death, 
and the dangers of the deep,^-scorns heaven and hell, that 
she may clutch her prey. There is, in my humble judgment, 
hut one way of bringing the African slave trade to a termina- 
tion — that is, hij closing the market everywhere. 

Conclusion. 

I have thus. Sir, — as I trust, without a single thought for 
which 1 should reproach myself, or the use of a single word 
which should justly give offence to any one living — stated in 
the foregoing remarks, some of my chief objections to coloni- 
zation : — not colonization as it may be defended, in theory, by 
a dextrous polemic, but as it is, in its practical operations. If 
it be true, that, whilst it professes in itself a capacity for the 
relief of the country from slavery, it has, after seventeen 
years of trial, /aiV and favorable trial — done nothing that has 
touched the matter ; if h falls in with — though it may not have 
originated — uncharitable feelings, unscriptural and unreason- 
able prejudices, and inhuman laws against the colored popu- 
lation among us ; if it occasions a deterioration of Christian 
character in the great body of those who emigrate — and 
through them, brings the Christian religion into dishonor, 
among the heathen — there is nothing in it, according to my 
poor judgment, that entitles it to the support of the patriot or 
the Christian. Although colonization in the West and South- 
West — as to any e^ectual future action, is dead — yet its ghost 
is unceasingly beckoning us away from the only course in 
which our safety lies. — Whenever any other plan of relief is 
submitted, colonization leaps in between it and the public 
mind, and pushes it aside. The poet has said " man never is 
— but always to be blessed " — colonization, in substance, says, 

down to Liberia for sale, where a great many 6f the articles he purchji9»e. 
are in demand. Mr. Teague, iu paying Mr. Lake for som^ goods, took 
the money from a bag containing about ^'1,000. The word " MaHzanares" 
wag marked on this bag. This circuwjstance struck him, from the gin»ii- 
larity of the word. Deponent has every reason to believe this bag came 
out of this vessel, she having been brought into this harbor subsequently, 
and eondemned in the court of mixed curamiisien — where it was proved 
that she had taken in a cargo (slaves) at the Gallinas, [a river raaking 
the northern boundary of the colonial possessioua ef Liberia, diatinguiihed 
heretofore, without haviag yet lost its reputation for the slave trade.]" 



^C - 



44 JAS. G. BIRNEY's LE'WER. 

slarery "never ts — but always to 6e removed." Entertaining 
these sentiments of colonization, I take up with great confi- 
dence, the opinion, that, nothing of real moment can be done 
for our relief from the great evil under which we are slowly 
yet certainly perishing, until this community be utterly divorc- 
ed from colonization in all its parts, and in all its measures. 

Kentucky is, at this time, in a fearful crisis — under a migh- 
ty pressure. She must — without delay — and if she would 
save her life — almost with violence, throw off the incubus 
that is suffocating h«r to death — or, be content to share, in 
common with the South its sure, its hastening, its disastrous 
fate. Let me present for your consideration but two or three 
facts : — in 1790 there were in this State more xhan Jive whites 
to one colored person, in 1830 there were but three whites, and 
a very small fraction, to one colored person. 

In 1800 our whole number was 220,959 
In 1810 " " " 406,511 

Increase 185,552 

In 1820 our whole number was 564,317 
In 1830 " " " 688,844 

Increase 124,527 

Deduct the increase of 1830 from that of 1820 

and there will be a difference of 61,025 

Thus, it appears that, on a population-capital of 564,317, 
there was an increase in ten years of only 124.527 — whilst 
for an equal period of ten years, there w^as an increase of 
185,552, on a population-capital of but 220,959 — demonstra- 
ting an absolute reduction of increase on the lar<rer capital, 
below the increase on the smaller, of 61,025. During the 
same period — from 1800 to 1S30, — the increase of the Blacks, 
taken separately, has been uninterrupted and rapid. From 
1790, when the first Census of the U. S. was taken under the 
law of Congress, to 1830 — a period of forty years, there was 
a gain in the increase of the black population, according to 
their population-capital, over the increase of the whites, ac- 
cording to theirs, for the same period, of more than 59,000 

The process by which this result is produced, 1 may exhibit 
on some future occasion ; it is yet going on, producing results 
of the same kind with an alarming rapidity. 

In refusing to look at, what is acknowledged on all hands, 
to be an evil — one that is becoming darker, more unwieldy, 
more menacing — and that is in the end, if unremoved, to 
over-master us — there is a want of manhood, which, it is be- 
lieved, cannot fairly be attached to our countrymen. All 

LofO. 



JAS. Q. BIRNEV'S L»TTER. 46 

that is wanting is, that this community come up to the con 
sideration of the subject with kind and charitable feelingg — 
that the mass of mind among us be applied to it, not for dissen- 
tion but relief— not for triumph but for truth. In thig temper, 
let the widest discussion of the subject be invited — in print and 
out of print — free, full, libei-al, unrestrained, — let there be no 
sympathy with the timid and the slothful, who cry out " let it 
alone, let it alone, it will cure itself," whilst the torpor of ap 
preaching death is beginning to be felt — let association! be 
encouraged, having for their object the concentration of intel- 
lectual effort, and the diffusion of intelligence throughout the 
whole mass of our population. — This will be found, as I ver- 
ily believe, the most effectual method of keeping in check the 
rash and the imprudent — and of drawing out the matured and 
sober views of the patriotic and intelligent of the land. 

Permit me, in conclusion, to say, that the views submitted 
in this communication, are entertained after long and very 
circumspect examination of the main subject to which they 
apply. Born in the midst of a slaveholdiug community — ac- 
customed to the services of slaves from my infancy — reared 
under an exposure to all the prejudices that slavery begets — 
and being myself, heretofore, from early life, a slaveholder 
— my effort* at mental liberation were commenced in the very 
lowest and grossest atmosphere. Fearing the reajity, as well 
as the imputation of enthusiasm — each ascent that my mind 
made to a higher and purer moral and intellectual region, I 
used as a stand-point to survey deliberately all the tract that 1 
had left. When I remember, how calmly and dispassionate- 
ly ray mind has proceeded from one truth connected with this 
subject, to another still higher — that the opinions I have 
embraced are those to which such minds and hearts as 
AVilberforce, and Clarkson's yielded their full assent — that 
they are the opinions of the disinterested and excellent of our 
own country ; I feel well satisfied that my conclusions are not 
the fruits of enthusiasm. When I recur to my own observa- 
tion, through a life already of more than forty years — of the 
anti-republican tendencies of slavery — and take up our most 
solemn state paper and there see, that " all men are created 
equal, and have a right that is inalienable to life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of hap])ine3s," I feel a settled conviction of mind 
that slavery, as it exists among us, is opposed to the very es- 
sence of our government — and that by prolonging it, we are 
living down the foundation-principle of our happy institutions. 
When I take up the Book of God's love, and there read 
•' whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye 
even so unto them" — my conviction is not lesi thorough, that 
slavery n&io is sinful in his sight. 



46 J A3. G. BIRNEV'S LBTTEH. 

But one word more. The views contained in this letter 
are my own, and they have been the result of my owii read- 
ing, observation and thought. I am a member of no anti- 
slavery society — nor have I any acquaintance, either person- 
ally or by literary correspondence, with any of the northern 
abolitionists. — No one, bc^^idc myself, is conmiitted by any 
thing I have said. 

With great respect, 

JAMES G. BIRNEY. 
Mercer County, July 15, 1834. 



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